
Class 5 X 733, r 

Book. A I IS » 

GopiglitN - 



COWRIGHT DEPOSil 




William Henry Book. 



THE 

Indiana Pulpit 



EDITED BY 



William Henry book 

Minister of the 

Tabernacle Church of Christ 

Columbus, Ind. 



CINCINNATI, O. 

The Standard Publishing Company 
1912 







Copyright, 1912 
The Standard Publishing Company 



gCLA320945 




££22= 



To my fellow Christian 
preachers, brethren in our 
Lord Jesus Christ, men 
who are loyal to the "Old 
Book" and who are not 
afraid to preach it as did 
the apostles of our Lord, 
this volume of sermons 
is affectionately dedicated. 
THE EDITOR. 




Introduction 



We offer no apology for sending out this volume 
of sermons. It will speak for itself. They come from 
the pens of some of our strongest and best men. 

They will be read by thousands, who will be helped 
by them. 

We send them out with the prayer that Christ may 

get to himself much glory from them. 

Editor. 



vi I 



L.i 



Table of 'Contents 



Page 

"Constancy/" Joseph C. Todd 5 

"Christ the Way," Charles H. Winders 25 

"Christ's Answer to Life's Greatest Question," Guy- 
Israel Hoover 37 

"A Significant Conversion," W. J. Cocke 57 

"The World's Great Common Denominator," T. J. Legg 75 
"'With All His House;' or, Religious Unity in the 

Home," George Watson Hemry, A.M 95 

"My Master's Cross and Mine," Robert X. Simpson... 109 
"The Democracy of Christian Faith," E. Richard 

Edwards 125 

"The Vision of the Pure Heart," James Small 143 

"Man More Valuable than a Sheep," J. A. Spencer... 165 
"The Plea of the Disciples of Christ ; or, The Move- 
ment for the Restoration of Apostolic Christian- 
ity," L. O. Newcomer . 179 

"An Old Love Story," W. T. Brooks 199 

"The Birthday of a King," C. J. Sharp 211 

"The Transforming Power of the Gospel," J. V. 

Coombs 223 

"Man's Greatest Discovery," Commodore W. Cauble... 2^37 
"The Lion of the Tribe of Judah," J. C. Burkhardt. . . . 251 

"Divine Authority," Z. T. Sweeney 263 

"The Written Word," Allan B. Philputt 279 

"Service and Reward," Wm. Chappie . .' 295 

"The Leaven and the Lump," L. E. Brown 309 

"Some Great 'Hoods' Jesus Taught a Woman," L. C. 

Howe 321 

"Getting the Most Out of Life," Harley Jackson S37 




Joseph Clinton Todd. 



JOSEPH CLINTON TODD, A.M. 

Born March 28, 1879, seven miles southwest of 
Sturgeon, Boone Co., Mo., on a farm. Son of 
William Chenault Todd and Maggie Hall Todd. 
Father a lawyer. Educated in the public schools of 
Sturgeon, Centralia and Marshall, Mo. Graduated 
in Missouri Valley College, 190 1 ; Union Seminary, 
1908; A. M. Columbia University, 1908. Married 
Miss Emily Josephine Robertson, June 2, 1903. 1901- 

04, Professor of Mathematics in Marshall, Mo. 1902- 
03, pastor of Christian Church, Boonville, Mo. 1904- 

05, pastor at Monroe City, Mo. 1905-08, student 
preacher while in school in New York City. 1908, 
pastor of Kirkwood Avenue Christian Church, Bloom- 
ington, Ind., and since 1910 financial secretary of the 
Bloomington Bible Chair 



SERMON I. 

CONSTANCY. 
Joseph C. Todd. 

(Preached at the Kirkwood Avenue Christian Church, 
Bloomington, Ind., July 2$, 1911.) 

Text, — John 6 : 66 : "Upon this many of his disciples went 
back, and walked no more with him." 

These words refer to Jesus of Nazareth. He was 
a preacher, a teacher and a prophet, in the minds of 
the people. He was much more than this, but many 
failed to learn it. The words of the text might have 
been spoken concerning hundreds of men whose names 
we have forgotten, or never have heard. But, friends, 
these words are about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
your Saviour and my Saviour, the hope of the world. 
Men and women had grown weary of listening to 
Jesus, and turned back never to walk with him again. 

He had become a popular leader. The people 
followed him by the thousands. Not only did they 
crowd into the private house where he was staying, 
and packed the synagogue in which he worshiped and 
preached, but they followed him to the lake, crowding 
him into a boat ; they gathered about him on the hill- 
side ; they even braved the sands of the desert to the 
number of five thousand. He was the one topic of 
conversation. Other rabbis were forgotten. The civil 
authorities became alarmed. The religious leaders of 



6 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

the day were aroused, and inveighed against him. He 
caused his hearers to wonder. He taught as one with 
authority. Some said he was Elijah returned to 
earth; the guilty conscience of Herod Antipas made 
him tremble with a fear that John the Baptist had 
come to life; the people desired to take him and 
crown him king. Had ever a young man of thirty 
attained such popularity? 

What had he been doing to gain such a hold on 
the people? The thickly settled region about the Sea 
of Galilee contained many sick and afflicted. He saw 
some of them, and had compassion on them and 
healed them. When five thousand followed him into 
the desert and were without food, he had his dis- 
ciples feed them with bread and fish in abundance. 
His power as preacher and teacher had put to shame 
the greatest leaders of the day. His control of dis- 
ease caused hundreds of unfortunates and thousands 
of their friends to trust him as a physician for bodily 
ills ; his providing of food for five thousand amazed 
and overjoyed them; his control of the crowds and 
evidences of great powers of leadership caused them 
to exclaim, "What a king he would make!" 

Jesus retreated. "Perceiving that they, were about 
to come and take him by force and make him king, 
he withdrew again into the mountains himself alone." 
He prayed in the mountain as the shades of night 
gatheied. His disciples entered a boat and put out 
to sea. Jesus still was alone with God. A storm 
gathered, the winds swept the lake. The disciples 
grew alarmed. Jesus appears and the storm passes. 
They land at Capernaum and spend the night. On 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 7 

the morrow the multitudes find Jesus. He is still 
their idol. But he has been with God in the moun- 
tain. 

He preaches them a sermon. He talks about the 
bread of life. The sermon meant a crisis in his life, 
but he had been with God on the mountain-top and 
his vision was wider than a petty Jewish throne. He 
would be crowned, not king of the Jews, but "King 
of kings and Lord of lords." He told them why they 
were seeking him. He pointed them to matters of 
far greater concern than loaves and fishes. ''Ye seek 
me not because ye saw signs, but because ye ate of 
the loaves and were filled. Work not for the food 
which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto 
eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you. 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have not 
life in yourselves. This is the bread which came down 
out of heaven ; not as the fathers ate and died ; he that 
eateth this bread shall live for ever." 

These things said he in the synagogue as he taught 
in Capernaum. This sermon forever doomed his 
hopes of being made a king. "The Jews therefore 
murmured concerning him because he said, I am the 
bread which came down out of heaven. Many there- 
fore of his disciples, when they heard this, said. This 
is a hard saying: who can hear it? Many of his 
disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 
Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also 
go away?" 

Jesus is sad. He is almost broken-hearted. Not 
on his own behalf is he discouraged. Full well did 



8 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

he know that "defeat may be victory in disguise. The 
lowest ebb is the turn of the tide." 

His sadness was the sadness of wisdom and love. 
Our hearts probably go out to Jesus, but his heart 
went out to the retreating multitudes, the multitudes 
who gather by the thousands when they are given 
bread for their bodies, but out of whose thousands a 
bare twelve, one of whom was false, was left. We 
here face the character and constancy of life ques- 
tions. The same scene is repeated every day wherever 
dwell the sons of men. This is a good scene to study 
so as to know how far the fault lies with the people. 
Here the teacher is perfect. No fault can be attrib- 
uted to the preacher for this seeming failure. One 
day there were five thousand, the next less than a 
score remain. Let us examine the cause of their de- 
flection. We need not study Jesus as a cause ; the 
problem is, in this instance at least, with the people, 
and the people alone. 

I. Many did not receive what they expected in 
coming to Jesus. 

II. The characters of others were incapable of 
constancy. 

III. Others failed when they found something was 
expected of them. 

I. Many did not receive what they expected in 
coming to Jesus. Some wanted a doctor, some wanted 
a free dinner, and others wanted to find in him a 
political hope. Even his own chosen disciples at times 
desired rewards which he did not offer. They had 
been fishermen, one a tax-gatherer, others plain work- 
ingmen of the time. He talked of a kingdom, and 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 9 

they had dreams of high office and great prominence. 
They were looking for gifts, for advantage, for things 
of profit to themselves, for power and advancement, 
for emoluments unearned. They were hoping for an 
escape from disease, or a man who could give them a 
new government with lower taxes. These things were 
not found, so they returned home disappointed. The 
wealth he offered them they could not appreciate, and 
back they go to seeking the baubles of power and the 
enjoyments of the world. 

How like the men and women we see all about us ! 
Church rolls to-day are full of the names of members 
who were devoted for a few weeks, months or even 
years, but who have now gone back to walk no more 
with Him. Man is by nature a grafter, a dependent, 
anxious to be showered with blessings and gifts he 
has not earned or deserved. He dreams of castles in 
Spain built by the labor of other men, of recognition, 
prominence and power his talents do not warrant, of 
love and devotion he does not merit. He is perfectly 
willing that Christ shall bear his sins, heal his disease, 
feed him. He gladly accepts office in the kingdom 
of God for which he has no manner of qualification. 

I. The church is not a medical and hospital asso- 
ciation. It is true that Christian people, and even 
churches, establish hospitals, maintain dispensaries,, 
employ nurses and doctors, but the purpose of the 
church is not to cure the sick and care for the maimed. 
It does so much of this work that often they who 
would profit by its love, demand attention as if they 
had a right to expect it. Many rail at the church be- 
cause it fails to respond, as they feel it should, to 



10 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

their needs. They seem to feel that having become 
members, having met the conditions for entrance, in 
return all these other benfits should ever accrue. It 
makes no difference to them that they have been the 
most inefficient and careless of members themselves, 
they are members and should be cared for by the 
church. If they become ill, the attention of all should 
be given to make them comfortable and to entertain- 
ing them while convalescing. If they do not receive 
these attentions continually, then his disciples go back 
and walk no more with him. But they have not un- 
derstood the purpose of Christ's holy church. It in- 
deed does minister to the sick, but its purpose is not 
so much care and cure as preventive. Its function is 
more a message of right living, the kind of living 
that will enable men and women to be free and inde- 
pendent, not slaves and objects of benevolent charity. 
2. Some expect food, but the church is not a 
charity association for the free distribution of loaves 
and fishes. Its members and the organization do re- 
spond to the need of the hungry. So much so that 
the hungry often demand help as a right and expect 
a response as part of the obligation of the church. 
When they who would be fed are taught the wisdom 
of work and the art of spending their earnings wisely, 
then they turn away in disgust. They want free 
bread, not knowledge of how to provide it themselves. 
Hundreds of people in every community are per- 
fectly willing that the church of Jesus Christ shall 
provide them with food — they are not all poor people, 
either. Little do they care who furnishes the food. 
It's free ; of course they will accept it. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 11 

3. Some expect that compliance with the initial 
conditions of discipleship will enable them to be free 
from temptation and sin, and immediately transform 
them into characters of strength, peace and happiness. 
When the mysterious transformation does not imme- 
diately take place and continue, they are disappointed 
and walk no more with Him. 

4. Some expect that the church shall solve the 
social problems, and bring in just that state of society 
in which ideal conditions displace the present imper- 
fect relations. It shall take up the cause of labor as 
against capital, socialism as against the present order, 
champion this reform or that, this cause or that cause, 
this candidate or that candidate for office. When it 
fails to be swerved from its larger purpose, then men 
turn from it and say, It is inefficient and offers noth- 
ing worth espousing. Often it does lend its influence 
to such causes when the kingdom of God's interest 
seems to demand immediate action. But this is not 
the function of the church of Jesus Christ. It deals 
with the hearts and motives of men and leaves them 
to work out the social order as Christian conscience 
may direct. 

5. Again, many disciples desire that the reward 
of discipleship shall be a place in the kingdom for 
which they have no manner of qualifications. There 
is a feeling that before God and in the church all 
men are equal and one man is just as good as another. 
Nothing is more false. All men are not equal before 
God. Men are just what they are and are less equal 
before God than anywhere, for God knows them as 
they really are. One man is not as good as another 



12 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

man in the ■ church. Some are much better than 
others. Church membership does not make a fool 
wise, a bore attractive, a repulsive person a social 
leader, an incapable man fit for the direction of 
spiritual interests, an imperfect man perfect. Church 
membership should make all better, but it does not 
turn fiction into fact, and fancy into reality. Before 
God all men receive their just appreciation, and in 
the church is found greater tolerance and patience 
with the frailties and inequalities of men. In the 
church the superior try to aid the inferior, and in 
Christian love do not lord it over the weaker as the 
Gentiles love to do. I mean this is the spirit of the 
church. Often the ways of the world creep in here. 
Of course they do, for it is built out of men and 
women who still remain much as they were. But 
many turn back and walk with Him no more because 
they do not get what they want here. On finding that 
worth and character count here as elsewhere, they 
are disappointed in not receiving attentions far above 
what their natural worth warrants. They turn away 
from Christ's holy church declaring that it is cold and 
indifferent and gave them little care. Friends, the 
church is not a social equality association or a place 
to receive personal attention and unwarranted appre- 
ciation. You will count for just what you are here 
even more than in the world. Here the standard is 
Christlikeness and character, not wealth or lineage. 
The church is a place for the weak to grow stronger, 
but it is not a place to give honor where honor is not 
due. They who are disappointed in this confess in 
turning away that they are unworthy, "For if a man 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 13 

thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, 
he deceiveth himself. Be not deceived: God is not 
mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
also reap." The law is true in the church. They who 
expect to reap where they have not sown, join the 
five thousand who were disappointed in Jesus and fol- 
lowed him no more. 

6. Jesus Christ came to show us the Father. Ex- 
pect this of him and you will find your expectations 
realized beyond your highest hopes. The church ex- 
ists to enable us to know Jesus Christ and go with 
him unto the Father. You may not find the things of 
the world in Christ's touch, but if you are seeking 
God you will find him, and in finding him you will 
understand why Jesus preached the sermon in the 
synagogue at Capernaum. "Show us the Father, and 
it sufficeth us." 

II. Again, many of his disciples went back and 
walked no more with him because they were weak in 
that element of character which we may call con- 
stancy. 

Constancy is a strong word. It means to stand 
together, to stay with, stand by. It is a word for 
friendships, and therefore a word for Christians, for 
practical spirituality is a friendship with God and 
his Son Christ Jesus. The power of constancy has 
much to do with the religious life. All too often are 
men and women weak in the character element of 
constancy. They who will and can be true belong to 
the elect of earth. 

In the business world there is much fickleness, but 
men are even more fickle than changes in business 



14 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

prove. Here they can not change as often as they 
would. In the professions a man who grows weary 
remains because he can do nothing else; in business 
he remains because he has invested and sees no way 
to get his investment out, and at labor he remains by 
the machine because he knows no means of escape 
rather than because he has settled there for a life- 
work. In marriage the divorce court and scandals 
are a sad comment on the inconstancy of the human 
heart, but even these do not tell the whole story, for 
the unknown caprice is larger than the known. Many 
still abide in the home together from whom the love 
ties have long been loosed and who are held together 
for convenience, on account of the children, or simply 
because the shame of publicity prevents a final sep- 
aration. It all leads us to ask how long hearts may 
be true to the vows they have taken. In the friend- 
ships of life the Davids and Jonathans are not nearly 
so numerous as they might be. Our friendships are 
more often matters of months and years than for 
life. Tennyson and Hallam arouse our admiration, 
but how many have the character necessary for such 
constancy? Damon and Pythias are the saints of a 
great fraternity who practice such friendship but in 
part at its best. How many close friendships are 
maintained through the years ? Some, but more often 
is life composed of brief friendships soon ended, to be 
related to others and so on indefinitely. Weak char- 
acters are not capable of strong and lasting friend- 
ships. 

In the realm of religion, friends, in the Christian 
life, you have an opportunity for the most perfect of 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 15 

friendships. Here character and constancy are put to 
their hardest test. If they stand, the results are com- 
mensurate with the dignity of this supreme relation. 
A church has a membership of a thousand. You ask 
how many of them are constant in attendance at wor- 
ship. A meeting is held of five hundred additions. 
You ask how many can be found in their places and 
true to their vows. A pastor is called. For six 
months members who have not been to worship in 
years appear and seem to have taken on new life. 
But where are they in two years? There are churches 
in the land whose membership has grown so fickle 
that no pastor will remain longer than a few months. 
Like the Greeks Paul found at Athens, they "spend 
their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear 
some new thing." People who are incapable of being 
true in any of life's relations also fail in the church 
relation. Churches employ helpers to visit the mem- 
bership and constantly remind them of their duty to 
Christ and his church. Dinners and teas are given 
to interest the people. Special services, special music, 
special advertising, sensational subjects, are an- 
nounced. Socials are held, varied and unique organ- 
izations are formed, promises are exacted, the mem- 
bers are scolded, denounced, plead with, appealed to, 
reasoned with, urged, warned, invited to the services 
of the Lord's house, and to remain true to their vows 
of the risen life. 

In the work of the church, elders and deacons ac- 
cept the honors heaped on them by the church, are 
ordained in the holiest form, are entrusted with the 
holy interest of the kingdom, are faithful a few 



16 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

months or years, and then cease to perform their 
duties, rarely attend the services, give little attention 
to monthly meetings, fail to function. In the music 
they who have the sacred honor of praise in harmony 
are the exceptional ones, if trivial and unimportant 
matters do not swerve them from their holy priv- 
ileges. In Sunday-school the grave responsibility of 
planting the religious life in the children fails to 
arouse teachers and officers to do their best in prep- 
aration, to be regular and punctual in attendance. 
Among the members the vital importance of relating 
the children to the church and Sunday-school weighs 
less than a Sunday dinner with a country cousin, and 
the Scriptural injunction, "Not forsaking our own 
assembling together, as the custom of some is," finds 
no more response from many than an injunction from 
the Koran. And what is the cause of it all? Simply 
insufficient strength of character to be constant in duty 
and loyal to the Master's work and worship. 

Public worship, the Lord's Supper, praise, prayer 
and preaching are vital to the best religious develop- 
ment, and necessary to keep alive the fires of devotion. 
Faithfulness in matters of worship is a necessary ele- 
ment in the establishment of Christ's kingdom. But 
weak Christians are easily turned aside. Other than 
religious motives must be appealed to to get them 
interested. The worship of the Father and his Son 
in his temple seems secondary to many other things. 
The weather is warm or cold, wet or dry, an auto- 
mobile trip, a Sunday dinner at home or away from 
home, a slight indisposition, a press of business, a few 
minutes' oversleep, a Sunday excursion or a Sunday 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 17 

paper — all manner of causes are offered when the real 
cause is a defect in the power to continue true to a 
life duty and to a friendship with God. Some will 
rejoin, "But we can worship at home or under the 
blue sky, and commune with God in nature." The 
truth is that you do nothing of the kind. The people 
who worship at home and interpret God in the stars 
are constant in their habits of public worship. 

Churches often make the mistake of trying to con- 
duct themselves so as to attract these careless thou- 
sands. Such efforts are well and good if they do 
not cease to be churches in so doing. It is not hard 
to attract a crowd. The people who are incapable of 
constancy haven't so much brains and culture that you 
have to do much to get them. Men and women who 
can not rise to lives of constancy are not attracted by 
the deep things of God. You do not always find pious 
hearts where a crowd gathers. Church efficiency can 
be estimated by a certain kind of statistics, but not by 
the kind that values numbers just for the sake of 
numbers. Try and conduct your worship so that the 
careless mob will gather, and your church will cease 
to be a place of worship. Church services are for 
people seeking God, not to satisfy morbid curiosity, 
not to cause laughter or tears, not to satisfy the desire 
for art, music, knowledge, or social contact, but to 
satisfy the human heart craving communion with God. 
If they are poorly attended, it may mean that the 
preacher has had the courage to offer the bread of 
life instead of the confections of a fickle world. Many 
of our churches would do more good if they had fewer 
members and more of God, smaller audiences and 



18 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

more of the Holy Spirit. Ye who follow Jesus must 
possess the virtue of constancy. You must be able 
to rise to high and holy purposes. A lifelong friend- 
ship with God takes strength of character. The fickle 
crowd follow a few days and then drift back to their 
work and play in the world. ''Be ye stedfast, unmov- 
able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, foras- 
much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the 
Lord." 

"Abhor, condemn, abjure the mortal made 
Of such quicksilver clay that in his breast 
No permanent foundation can be laid." 

III. In the third place, many of his disciples go 
back and walk no more with Him when they find 
something is expected of them. Man is very sensitive 
on this point. Theologians have searched long and 
hard for a way to be saved which costs the individual 
no effort of expenditure. Man would like to find 
certain easy requirements, the doing of which would 
assure eternal safety, but no such discovery has been 
made. He wants to be saved even if he does spend 
his birthright of body and brain in sin and idleness. 
He desires earth now and heaven hereafter, no matter 
what his record may have been in life. He will stand 
up and confess in the standard form, be baptized ac- 
cording to the commands bf the Scriptures, receive 
the right hand of fellowship, but when it comes to 
matters of bearing responsibility, personal integrity, 
duty of sending the gospel to all the world, creation 
of a Christlike character, he exclaims, "This is a hard 
saying. Who can hear it?" 

Jesus expects men to be right within themselves. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 19 

"To thine own self be true, 
And it must follow as night the clay, 
Thou canst not be false to any man." 

Jesus expects a man to be pure in thought, chaste 
in speech, kind in heart, free from passion and lust, 
not given to profane speech or intemperance. He ex- 
pects a man to conduct his business with a regard for 
the rights of his fellow-man. He expects those who 
follow him to bear the cross for the sake of the world. 
He expects them to be more loyal to him than to any- 
earthly relation. 

How often do the disciples fail here! How many 
members of our churches are found wanting when 
church membership is revealed to them as service. All 
of our churches contain members who never respond 
to the duties of the kingdom. The church's one su- 
preme purpose is to know Jesus Christ and make him 
known to the world. An appeal to preach the gospel 
in county, State, nation or world sends thousands of 
the followers back to their work and play. A man 
has the power to serve well and earn much for his 
services. Jesus Christ makes it his duty to feel the 
call of the unsaved and consecrate his talents to the 
cause of the kingdom. But as he prospers by his 
talents he ceases to follow Jesus, and turns his at- 
tention to chasing the colored butterflies released by 
the magic of gold. 

Heal the sick, care for the orphans and widows, 
feed the hungry, furnish amusement and entertain- 
ment to the multitudes, and they will throng the 
church of Jesus Christ. Invite them to membership 
in such a church, and they will join by the thousands. 



20 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Require of them right living, loyalty to the church; 
require them to join in feeding the hungry, caring 
for the sick, and preaching to the lost, and they are 
surprised that anything should be expected of them 
beyond the honor of their membership, and the pleas- 
ure of saving and serving them. Some way or other 
there are many people in the world who have grown 
to feel they honor the church greatly in permitting it 
to save them. There is abroad the spirit of believing 
that the benefits of religion shall come without cost 
or effort on the part of the saved. 

By these tests, however, are found Christ jewels. 
A winnowing process reveals the golden grain. Jesus' 
sermon in Capernaum revealed who were the true 
disciples. A church is just as strong and just as large 
as the membership that stands true under test. The 
size of the roll is insignificant. It is not the members 
who have joined during the past year, but the mem- 
bers who remain, that add strength. Great souls 
scorn a religion without requirements. Only the 
selfish and weak desire unmerited blessings. 

Brethren, let's profit by Jesus' experience with the 
multitudes. Let us come to him because we desire 
the bread of life, because we want to know the Father. 
Let us rise to the noble friendship he offers us, and 
be true to it through all the years, no matter what 
conditions interfere. Let us rejoice that our relation 
to Christ and the church requires consecration of our 
all and service to him as our first duty and highest 
pleasure. "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast 
the words of eternal life." 




Charles H. Winders. 



22 



CHARLES H. WINDERS, A.M. 

Born on a farm in Henderson County, 111., Aug., 
23, 1866. When about two years of age his parents 
moved, with the family, to Missouri. Here. the sub- 
ject of this sketch lived till four years ago last Sep- 
tember, when he came to Indianapolis to become 
pastor of the Downey Avenue Church. He was 
brought up on a farm, and educated in the public 
schools and in Christian University, Canton, Mo. 
After leaving college he worked in a mission 'church 
in Kansas City one year; was pastor of the church 
at Palmyra, Mo., three years ; of the church at Colum- 
bia, Mo., twelve years, ' and is in his fifth year as 
pastor of the Downey Avenue Church in Indianapolis,. 
Ind. 



SERMON II. 

CHRIST THE WAY. 
Charles H. Winders, A.M. 

Text. — John 14:6: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, 
and the truth, and the life : no one cometh unto the Father, 
but by me." 

The value of these words of Jesus may be en- 
hanced by a knowledge of the circumstances under 
which they were spoken. The three things which we 
are told combine to make a great speech were present 
at this time ; viz. : a great theme, a great occasion and 
a great man. The theme was God, the Father — how 
to find him — how to know him — how to come to him. 
The greatest question in the sphere of pure thought 
is said to be, Does God exist? The next in import- 
ance is, If he exists, what is he like? They were not 
asking the first of these questions ; for them that was 
settled. They believed in God ; they had never known 
what it was to doubt his existence. To them the one 
who said there was no God, was a fool. It was no 
part of Jesus' mission to prove the existence of God; 
his existence was assumed. This was the first and 
fundamental principle of Jesus' teaching. "Ye be- 
lieve in God," he said, "believe also in me." 

Their question was not, Does He exist? but, What 
is He like? "Show us the Father," they cried. "We 

know not whither thou goest, and how can we know 

(2) 25 



26 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

the way?" It was the cry of Job, "Oh that I knew 
where I might find him, that I might come even to 
his seat!" But this cry is made more significant to 
us than is the cry of Job, by reason of the occasion 
and by reason of the answer it called forth. 

The disciples had been with Jesus for three years. 
They had not yet come to understand him, but they 
believed in him and loved him. Little by little he had 
been revealing to them the fact that he was soon to 
leave them. They could not understand how this was 
to be, but somehow they felt their hopes of finding 
in him the long- looked- for earthly king fading, and 
yet their faith and love assured them that he would 
not disappoint them. There had just occurred some 
strange things. He had been washing the disciples* 
feet. How unlike a king! He had established an 
institution the symbols of which could be none other 
than the symbols of death. He had declared that 
one of his disciples should betray him, and had even 
pointed out the betrayer and commanded him to 
hasten to his task, and now He is telling them He is 
soon to go away. Do you wonder that Peter asks, 
"Whither goest thou?" and, receiving no very satis- 
factory answer, do you wonder that .Thomas, the 
natural skeptic, at the same time the ardent friend 
and loyal disciple, cries out in tones of despair, "We 
know not where thou goest, how can we know the 
way ?" ? And this disciple speaks not for hmiself alone, 
but for all his fellow-disciples and for those who were 
to follow. His question is my question, and the an- 
swer that satisfies him will satisfy me. Nor is the 
answer that Jesus gives for Thomas alone, but for all 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 27 

the world of mankind for all time to come. Surely 
Jesus will speak plainly. He will not mislead, he will 
not confuse, he will not keep them in suspense. Here 
is his answer to that cry. "I am the way." Not, I 
will show you the way; not, I will give you a creed or 
a book or an institution that will teach you the way ; 
but, I am the way. 

Before Christianity came to be regarded as a creed 
or a doctrine or a philosophy or a church, it was 
thought of and spoken of as the way. Paul tells us 
he persecuted all those of this way. Apollos had been 
imperfectly instructed in the way, and Priscilla and 
Aquila took him and taught him more perfectly con- 
cerning the way. Felix, the governor, having more 
exact knowledge concerning the zvay, protected Paul 
from his enemies, the Jews. 

What a pity we have not been true to this primi- 
tive view of Christianity— not as a system of faith or 
as a philosophy of life, but as the way; true to Jesus' 
own declaration, "I am the way;" true to that 
prophetic picture painted seven hundred years before 
Jesus came, in which Christianity is so clearly and 
beautifully described as the zvay: "And a high way 
shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The 
way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it ; 
but it shall be for those : the wayfaring men, yea 
fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, 
nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon, they shall 
not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk 
there : and the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and 
come with singing unto Zion ; and everlasting joy 
shall be upon their heads : they shall obtain gladness 



28 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and joy, and sorrow and sighing- shall flee away." 

"I am the way." What is a way for? It is not to 
sleep on. The road makes a very poor bed, and the 
better the road, the poorer the bed. It is not a place 
to pitch one's tent and go into camp. If you do that, 
you must get off of the way. It is not a place for a 
crowd to assemble for argument, for controversy, for 
discussion. You have seen the officer of the law dis- 
perse the crowd engaged in controversy with the com- 
mand to move on, and not block the way. 

A way leads somewhere. It is not lost in the 
desert, it does not end in darkness ; it reaches a goal. 

The analogy can be readily seen. The way of 
which Isaiah and Paul and Jesus speak leads some- 
where. It does not lose itself in the desert ; it does 
not end in darkness ; it leads to a goal, and that goal 
is God. Christ is the way to the Father. It is to 
travel over ; not to sleep on, not a place to pitch one's 
tent and go into camp. We are on a journey, and the 
time we have in which to reach our destination is 
none too long. That destination is not heaven, as we 
have been taught to think of it ; that destination is 
God. The distance we have to travel to reach that 
destination is not measured in miles. We shall never 
get there by flying through space. The difference is 
one which only terms having a moral and spiritual 
content can describe. It is a difference in ideal, in 
purpose, in character. Christ is the way to this ideal, 
to this character, to this goal, which is God. 

Again, this way is not for argument, for contro- 
versy ; it is to travel over. How often the way has 
been blocked ! How much valuable time has been 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 29 

wasted ! How many poor, weary souls have been 
confused, discouraged and hindered, and have given 
up in despair, convinced by these discussions they 
were never on the way. How many poor, hungry 
souls like Thomas have cried out for the way — the 
living way — and have been shown a by-path that led 
off into the desert. 

Let us observe some characteristics of this way. 
The prophet tells us that it is a plain way — "so plain 
the warfaring man, though a simpleton, need not err." 
Xot that all about the way is plain, but just the way. 
YVe can not explain everything we see along the way,, 
and we are not asked to do so. But no honest, earnest 
soul of average intelligence, if given the account of 
Jesus' life, need miss the way. Our controversies 
have all been about things along the way; the life 
and ministry and mission and spirit of Jesus have 
never been in dispute. Xo one has ever doubted that 
the man who possessed the spirit of Christ and went 
forth to the mission of Christ was in the way. An 
old river pilot, on being asked if he knew where all 
the rocks and reefs were along the river, answered, 
"No, I only know where they are not." No man 
knows all about the way, but an honest, earnest man 
may easily find the way, and travel the way, and reach 
the goal at the end of the way. 

The prophet tells us it is the way of holiness. The 
unclean shall not pass over it ; no ravenous beast shall 
go up thereon. The prophet is not concerned with 
the beasts of prey, but the men of prey; not the un- 
clean beast, but the unclean man, shall not enter 
thereon. The redeemed shall walk therein — not the 



30 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

perfect. Then, Peter and James and John and Paul 
would all be shut out. Then, we should all have to 
go out, even from the least unto the greatest, and 
Jesus would be left alone. The way is not for those 
only who can agree about everything they see along 
the way. I am glad some people I know did not 
write the conditions of entrance upon this road; there 
would have been little consideration given to those 
who chanced to see what they failed to see or who 
failed to see what was so manifest to them. Let 
Jesus himself tell us the conditions of entrance upon 
this way. ''Except ye turn and become as little chil- 
dren, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
The faith, the humility, the open-mindedness, the 
spirit of obedience which the child possesses — these 
are necessary that we may enter upon this way. 

It is an upward way. It is not one dead level. 
We do not enter the way full-grown. "First the 
blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." 
The child Jesus grew in stature and in wisdom and 
in favor with God and man. He who travels this way 
is not traveling in a circle. Neither is it a down- 
ward way. There is a way that leads down. "The 
works of the flesh are manifest. Fornication, un- 
cleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, 
strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, 
envyings, drunkenness, revellings." This is the down- 
ward way. It grows more and more difficult and dis- 
appointing even to the end. But the upward way — 
the way of "joy and peace and longsufrering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance" — 
Peter tells us it is the way of "faith, courage, knowl- 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 31 

edge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kind- 
ness and love." This is the upward way. 

This description of the way would be very incom- 
plete if we failed to include in it Jesus' statement that 
the way is straight and narrow. 

This should not surprise us. Every way of suc- 
cess is straight and narrow. There are a thousand 
avenues of failure, but only one of success. This is 
no less true in the business world or in the educational 
world than it is in the world of religion. The width 
of the way is defined in business and education by 
such words as industry, concentration, purpose, per- 
severance ; in the moral and religious realm it is de- 
fined by such words as are found in the catalogue of 
graces and virtues given in the New Testament Scrip- 
tures. You can not fail to see how narrow and 
straight is this way, and how very easy it must be to 
lose it. The great number of failures in all depart- 
ments of life testify to this fact, but the saddest of all 
these failures are those which occur in the moral and 
religious realm. 

The prophet finally tells us it is a way of joy. 
They shall come with singing unto Zion, and ever- 
lasting joy shall be upon their heads. A life of joy 
depends upon the presence of the very elements which 
go to constitute thL way. A great purpose, an ideal, 
a task big enough to command all our time and 
thought and affections and energy, is necessary. They 
say our men are becoming soft and effeminate ; that 
there are no longer any men of great courage and 
strength and purpose ; that the men capable of great 
endurance and great sacrifice are all gone ; that war, 



32 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

with all its horrors, is the one thing which brings out 
these qualities, and if we are not to have war, we 
must have its equivalent. Where else can you find 
its equivalent? Let a man enter upon this way; let 
him seek to make Christ's life his own ; let him, with 
Paul, say, "For me to live is Christ." Christ in my 
home ; Christ in my shop or store or factory or school- 
room ; Christ to the toiler and to the man of wealth; 
Christ to little children, and Christ to the old and 
infirm, and Christ to the cold, hard man of affairs, 
whose only ambition is to get on in the world. For 
me to live is Christ always and everywhere. Let a 
man set himself to this task, and there will not be a 
single quality of manhood left undeveloped; and not 
only so, such a life will be a life of continuous joy. 

But it is the way of joy also, because it is the way 
of progress. There is, and can be, no joy without, 
progress. Some men boast that in the Christian life 
they are just- where they were twenty or thirty years 
ago. Think of it — marking time for thirty years — 
on the way, but getting nowhere ; no new vision of 
truth, no wider horizon, no growth in their conception 
and appreciation of Christ and his mission! They 
have been on the way, but they have pitched their 
tent; they have gone into camp. But to the man who 
really travels this way it is never dull, never uninter- 
esting; there are new visions of truth and beauty ap- 
pearing constantly ; new opportunities, new privileges, 
new responsibilities, new hopes and new achievements 
and new victories. There will be experienced the 
joy of new life to the very end. 

I thank God with all my heart for my friends who 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 33 

have grown old while traveling this zcay — not for 
those who have camped upon the way, but for those 
who have gone forward. Now and then I meet one 
who seems to have been marking time for many years. 
He has been annoyed by people who have passed him 
by, annoyed by those who would not stop to discuss 
the way with him, and those who have urged him to 
join them have also vexed his righteous soul. This 
is not the man for whom I thank God. It is the man 
who has gone forward ; he has grown old beautifully ; 
he loves children more than he once loved them ; he 
loves his fellow-men more ; he loves God more. He 
is more tolerant, more kind, more gentle, more patient, 
more forgiving. We all have so many of these 
friends, and they have been such a blessing to our 
lives. The way to them has been a way of joy, and 
their joy has increased more and more as they ap- 
proached the end. 




Guy Israel Hoover. 



24 



GUY ISRAEL HOOVER. 

Born at Croton, Licking Co., O., Nov. 12, 1872, 
being the next youngest son of Giles W. and Lucretia 
Hoover. His father and mother were charter mem- 
bers of the Christian Church of that town, his father 
serving until the time of his death as an elder of the 
congregation. 

He was for two years a teacher in the public 
schools. He is a graduate of the Hiram Preparatory 
School, Hiram College, and the Graduate Divinity 
School of the University of Chicago. After grad- 
uating from the last-named institution, he spent two 
additional years in study toward the Doctor of Philos- 
ophy degree. 

He was married to Virginia Dillinger, of Findlay, 
O., also a graduate of Hiram College, July 12, 1900. 

He has served the following churches : Zanesville, 
O., two years ; Minerva, O., four years ; First and 
West Pullman Churches, Chicago, 111., six years. He 
is now in the third year of his ministry at Tipton, Ind. 



35 



SERMON III. 

"CHRIST'S ANSWER TO LIFE'S GREATEST 
QUESTION." 

Guy Israel Hoover. 

Text. — Matt. 6 : 2,3- "Seek ye first his kingdom, and his 
righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you/' 

For ages philosophers have discussed the question, 
What is the supreme good of human life? Perhaps 
we have often asked ourselves the great question of 
antiquity as of the modern world. We have life be- 
fore us. Once only can we live it. How may life 
be made best worth living? Wliat is the true ideal, 
and what the chief good, of man? In the words, of 
our text, we have the answer to this question by the 
world's greatest teacher. 

I. Jesus Christ declares that the attainment of the 
kingdom of God is the true goal of human endeavor. 

Even the most cursory reader of the New Testa- 
ment Scriptures must have noticed the large place 
which the kingdom has in Jesus' teachings. After his 
entrance upon his public ministry, his first public ut- 
terance related to the kingdom. After the record of 
the temptation we read : ''From that time Jesus began 
to preach, and to say, Repent ye ; for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4: 17). Its possession con- 
stitutes the first Beatitude ; its coming with ever-in- 
creasing power he made the subject of daily prayer; 



38 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

he accordingly enjoined it as the first object of daily 
effort; the seeking of his kingdom and his righteous- 
ness is, in the language of our text, inculcated as the 
first and highest duty of man. He said that it was 
for this purpose he was sent into the world, to preach 
the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43). And for this 
same purpose he sent out the twelve (Luke 9: 1-12). 
This was the message which they were to carry to the 
uttermost parts of the earth. "And this gospel of the 
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a wit- 
ness unto all nations" (Matt. 24: 14). From the first 
to the last the burden of his teaching and his preach- 
ing was a revelation of the doctrine of his kingdom. 

It is, then, perfectly clear that it is a matter of 
vital importance to understand Jesus' doctrine of the 
kingdom. To misunderstand it is to misunderstand 
the message of Jesus and consequently to misunder- 
stand his interpretation of life. And as a matter of 
fact very partial views of the kingdom have wide 
prevalence to-day. 

Principal Fairbairn, in his great work on "The 
Place of Christ in Modern Theology," declares that 
"the most distinctive and determinative element in 
modern theology is what we may term a new feeling 
for Christ." This return to Christ has led not only to 
a recovery of the historical Jesus, but to the redis- 
covery of the kingdom of God which was the burden 
of his proclamation. This rediscovered "kingdom of 
God" another has characterized as "the most thought- 
compelling, the most zeal-inspiring, the most world- 
transforming of all the great movements of this won- 
der-crowded age." 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 39 

I now wish to inquire with you more particularly 
as to what the kingdom of God is by contrast with 
some partial views of it that obtain. 

Many to-day identify the kingdom of God, or the 
kingdom of heaven, which is its exact equivalent, with 
heaven, the abode of the blessed dead. Under this 
conception, to seek the kingdom is to seek heaven, 
and to enter into it is to gain heaven at last. This 
conception of Christianity finds its most perfect ex- 
position in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." Its hero 
leaves his city to destruction and devotes his life to 
the gaining of a destination of personal safety. But 
this view of the kingdom makes a part synonymous 
with the whole. It makes religion too exclusively 
other-worldly. It makes the kingdom something 
future and remotely related to the hard facts of 
every-day life. To Jesus heaven was a great reality. 
What he proposed was to make earth a colony of 
heaven. 

A yet more common conception identifies the king- 
dom of God with the visible church. The church thus 
becomes an end in itself.. Its chief concern is its own 
upbuilding. This has resulted in the sin of ecclesi- 
asticism and the wretched strife of sectarianism. In 
Jesus' thought the church existed, like himself, "not 
to be ministered unto, but to minister." The church 
is a divinely appointed means to a divinely ordained 
end. The kingdom of God is that end and the church 
is the supreme agent for the extension and upbuilding 
of the kingdom. One of our English brethren (J. J. 
Haley) once likened the relation of the church to the 
kingdom to the relation of the British Army to the 



40 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

British Empire. The army is a part of the empire, 
but not the whole of it. It is the organized instru- 
ment of aggression, extension, protection, conquest, 
victory. Its function is to execute the will of the 
reigning sovereign. The church is the kingdom's 
organic and aggressive agency in the conversion of 
the world and in the dissemination of righteousness, 
but it does not exhaust the kingdom any more than 
the British Army exhausts the British Empire. The 
church is to prepare men for the kingdom, to make 
them citizens of the kingdom, and then strive to make 
them ever better citizens of the kingdom. The king- 
dom relates to a purpose to be achieved ; the church is 
the means by which that purpose is to be realized. 
The kingdom of God implies a state which Jesus 
desires that all men should attain ; the church is the 
supreme agency for the accomplishment of this end. 
There may be bad men in the church ; there can be 
only good men in the kingdom. Men get into the 
church by what they profess; they get into the king- 
dom of God only as they hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness. 

The distinction which I am now making has its 
practical message to us gathered here to-night. We 
are met representing various fellowships. Is there no 
bond of unity in the midst of our various divisions? 
I see the good you are doing, and my heart goes out 
in the fullest and sincerest sympathy with you in that 
work. You see the good that others, or perhaps we, 
are doing, and your sympathies are with us in our 
work of good. The kingdom of God includes all that 
is genuinely good in all our efforts. John Wesley once 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 41 

said, "If we can not all think alike, we can all love 
alike." 

Still another view identifies the kingdom of God 
with the invisible church, which in its effects is much 
the same as confounding- it with heaven. To the 
multitude this view of the kingdom makes it seem 
remote from the life that now is and not vitally con- 
cerned with its pressing problems. 

The true view of the kingdom of God is large 
enough to include all that is true in all the views that 
we have had under consideration. In its extent it in- 
cludes heaven and earth and the church, visible and 
invisible. In its content it embraces heaven, the in- 
visible church, and the regenerate membership of the 
visible church. 

It is a significant fact that both Jesus and John 
the Baptist began preaching the kingdom of God with- 
out any definition of it. The conception of the king- 
dom was familiar to their hearers, and had been 
familiar to Jewish ears for centuries. The national 
life of Israel began as a theocracy. In accordance 
with the covenant entered into at Sinai, Jehovah, the 
God of Israel, became their King. The rulers of 
Israel, whether judges or kings, are simply representa- 
tives of Jehovah. All the great nations of antiquity 
sought to realize world dominion. And this idea grad- 
ually dawned on the mind of Israel. The nation came 
to conceive of Jehovah's kingdom in the terms of the 
Davidic empire. They thought of that empire as 
gradually extending until at length it should embrace 
all peoples ruled from Mt. Zion by one of David's 
royal line. The kingdom of God was the continuous 



42 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

thread of thought running through the centuries. As 
the prophets gained more exalted conceptions of God, 
they gained nobler conceptions of his kingdom. There 
are two essential ideas in the prophetic conception of 
the kingdom of God. It is to be a regenerate com- 
munity, and in the fellowship of this community God's 
will is to be fulfilled. As the prophets conceived it, 
the kingdom of God, fully come in the earth, implies 
a world-wide society, in which universal obedience to 
the divine law as administered by the Lord's anointed, 
would bring universal blessings, spiritual and tempo- 
ral. The kingdom of God fully come meant to them 
an ideal world. 

In his great sermon on the Mount Jesus declared 
his attitude toward the prophets : "Think not that I 
am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am 
not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (Matt. 5: 17). We 
infer, therefore, with reference to the kingdom of 
God, that Jesus Christ had come to make actual the 
prophets' vision. By his declaration that the kingdom 
of God, this ideal world, was at hand, he would have 
us understand that its realization had begun. A king- 
dom implies an organized society, the citizens of 
which are subjects of the king and the laws of which 
are his laws. The kingdom of God was Jesus' social 
ideal which will be fully realized in the world when 
God's will is "done in earth as it is in heaven;" that 
is, when all the King's laws are perfectly obeyed 
among men. And is it not this glorious ideal realized 
that John the Revelator saw on the isle of Patmos? 
In that vision of the things which were to come to 
pass he saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 43 

doum out of heaven from God. By many scholars 
that vision is interpreted as foreshadowing the world 
under the dominion of Christ, and as having its reali- 
zation, not in a heavenly state beyond this world, but 
in a progressively righteous state in this world. You 
will remember that John was also permitted to behold 
this world as having "become the kingdom of our 
Lord, and his Christ," in which he was to reign "for 
ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15). It is God's purpose 
"to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the 
heavens, and the things upon the earth" (Eph. 4: 10). 

While Jesus conceived his mission to be primarily 
to the spiritual nature of man, it is clear that all of 
God's laws are laws of the kingdom of God. The 
laws of nature are the laws of God and so of his 
kingdom viewed as the sphere of his sovereignty. All 
of God's laws, then, physical and mental as well as 
moral and spiritual, are laws of his kingdom, and were 
undoubtedly intended to minister to the blessedness 
of its citizens. In the kingdom of God fully come 
can we imagine the violation of any of God's laws in 
any sphere of life? The kingdom of God is as far- 
reaching as the laws of the King, and is large enough, 
broad enough and inclusive enough to comprehend 
all that is true, useful and beneficent. 

The kingdom of God fully come ! Then all in- 
humanity, injustice, unrighteousness, inordinate greed 
and selfishness, and all the enemies of human wel- 
fare and human happiness, spiritual, intellectual and 
physical, eliminated from human life ! 

The kingdom of God fully come ! Then righteous- 
ness — right-doing — universally prevalent among men, 



44 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

for "the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and 
joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). Then love 
regnant in human life, perfect brotherhood realized 
through perfect obedience to the two great laws of the 
kingdom of God, perfect love to God and perfect love 
to man, man at peace with his God, himself and with 
his fellow-men, universal happiness reigning in the 
world ! 

Sublime ideal ! Ennobling vision ! A goal worthy 
of all human aspirations and endeavors ! 

My message to you to-night, young people, is based 
upon the conviction that if you are to render the best 
service of which you are capable, you must worship 
at the shrine of the ideal. Jesus has placed before 
us the highest ideal of life for the individual and for 
human society. In it all true and worthy ideals are 
included. He invites you to make his ideal your ideal, 
and to co-operate with him and with all who are labor- 
ing for its realization. We believe with Browning 
that man was born to grow, not stop, and that growth 
is a prophecy of a perfected humanity. The kingdom 
of God is to be realized, and in the light of eternity 
every life is significant only in relation to that king- 
dom. 

"God hath sounded forth the trumpet 

Which shall never call retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men 

Before his judgment-seat. 
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him, 

Be jubilant, my feet, 

For God is marching on." 

"Hitch your wagon to a star." Have high and 
noble ideals. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 45 

II. In the words of our text, Jesus Christ sets 
forth the principles of a true life lived zvith reference 
to the kingdom of God, or the divinely conceived order 
of a. successful life. 

"Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness ; 
and all these things shall be added unto you." 

The first principle is that of consecration to the 
kingdom. We are to "seek" the kingdom. In Jesus' 
plan for social redemption he attached strategic value 
to the individual. The obligation of consecration to 
the kingdom is laid upon each one. His program 
for the salvation of society is in marked contrast with 
the panaceas for human ills put forward so confidently 
to-day. There are many who would have us believe 
that a transformation of the social organism, a change 
in the political organization, or a reorganization of 
industry, will right the ills to which society has fallen 
heir. Jesus recognized the fact that society can not 
be right while man himself is wrong ; that the moral 
integrity of the individual is a necessity to a true social 
structure. It is not enough to change man's relations 
and environment and leave his character untouched. 
•It is, perhaps, because of his relation to the whole that 
Jesus accounted the individual soul of such infinite 
worth. Just as each minutest wheel is essential in 
some great machine, just as the health of each slighted 
limb or organ in your body affects the vitality and 
health of the whole, so stands the individual in the 
organic life of the social world. "We are members 
one of another." "No man liveth or dieth unto him- 
self." 

This obligation of consecration involves regenera- 



46 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

tion of the individual soul, his being born again, born 
from above — such a change wrought in the human 
heart as to cause the individual to will to do God's 
will What God desires of us is that we should live 
in accordance with his laws, which are the true laws 
of our being. "These laws are an expression of his 
infinite love guided by his infinite wisdom. They 
require only what our highest good requires ; they for- 
bid only what our highest good forbids. They are 
the best possible paths to the highest possible blessed- 
ness. All the ills of life, bodily, mental, moral, social, 
political, industrial, financial, and every other possible 
sort, are the thorns which God has set along these 
paths to turn us back when we wander from them. 
These ills of life are the penalties of violated law — 
penalties appointed by God's far-seeing love as truly 
as were the paths of law these penalties were set to 
guard. Just so far as men walk in these God-ap- 
pointed paths, the ills of life disappear" ( Josiah Strong 
in "The New Era," p. 230). "In tune with the In- 
finite" suggests the true harmony of life. 

The man who attempts to run counter to the laws 
of God has the universe against him. And there can 
be but one end to such a life, and that is collapse. 
Margaret Fuller at one time sent word to Thomas 
Carlyle, "Tell Thomas I agree to submit to the uni- 
verse." Carlyle sent back word, "Gad, she'd better." 
Many learn this great truth only from bitter experi- 
ence. A good woman that had known affluence was 
reduced to poverty. She told me that in her poverty 
she found God and came to a true estimate of life. 
A prominent evangelist of America found God be- 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 47 

hind prison bars. These prison bars were to him a 
blessing if they led him to a true estimate of the 
values of life. How many have found God in the 
awful extremity of human need! Might we not in 
this connection fittingly quote the words of Jesus to 
Thomas, slightly altered: "Because thou hast found 
me in affliction and bitter experience, thou hast be- 
lieved : blessed are they that have not seen these, and 
yet have believed" (John 20:29). 

Jesus Christ is the perfect individual. He is the 
symbol of perfected human nature, the archetypal 
man, the sum total of unfolded, fulfilled humanity. 

Jesus Christ is the Saviour of society. His en- 
thronement in human hearts is the key to salvation. 
Sin has perverted the individual and has thus de- 
stroyed the social factor. To have Christ formed 
within us is to be restored to moral wholeness and 
so to social fitness. 

The next principle which this text emphasizes is 
concentration. "Seek first the kingdom." 

The modern world agrees with Emerson that "con- 
centration is the secret of strength, in politics, in 
war, in trade; in short, in all the management of 
human affairs." Jesus is, then, at one with human 
experience in naming concentration as one of the 
principles of a truly successful life. 

Upon what are we to concentrate? Jesus an- 
swers, "The kingdom of God." In other words, 
character is to be our supreme concern. And by 
character I mean the character of the archetypal 
man, the Christ of God. And if we are to follow 
Christ, there are two paths along which he leads. 



48 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

The first of these paths is the path of integrity. 
Garfield, when a boy, was asked what he intended to 
be, and his reply was, ''First of all, I must make my- 
self a man ; if I do not succeed in that, I can succeed 
in nothing." The achievement of a Christlike char- 
acter is the sublimest task beneath the stars. It is 
greater than discovering a continent, as Columbus 
did ; greater than achieving military renown, as Na- 
poleon did ; greater than inventing the telegraph, as 
Morse did ; greater than discovering a planet, as 
Bernard did; greater than reaching the North Pole, 
as Peary did ; greater than getting fortune, power, 
learning or fame. If a man fails to make himself, 
whatever else he may make, he is a failure. He is a 
success if he achieves for himself a true character, 
whatever else he may fail to achieve. 

Following Jesus in the path of integrity to-day 
means, among other things, telling the truth, dealing 
honestly in trade, governing the temper, sealing the 
lips against slander, keeping the mind free from evil 
thoughts, and the life from unclean deeds. These 
great principles of morality need to be wrought into 
the very fiber of our being if we are to stand the 
severe tests of to-day, to say nothing of the judgment- 
day. A leading railroad man of this city was telling 
me recently of an experience the Lake Erie Road had 
in the construction of a bridge near Munc'ie. The 
Pennsylvania Road parallels theirs at that point, both 
crossing the same stream. The Lake Erie, through 
its own officers, directed the construction of its bridge. 
The Pennsylvania Road let the contract for construct- 
ing its bridge to disinterested parties. The abutments 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 49 

of each of the bridges were to be laid upon rock 
bottom. Both crews, drilling, came to rock. The 
Lake Erie men determined to test the rock. Doing 
so, they found it to be a soft limestone, and very thin,. 
with a soft loam beneath. But, drilling a few feet 
farther, they came to solid bed-rock, and upon this 
bed-rock the abutments of their bridge were planted. 
Those constructing the bridge of the parallel road 
planted their abutments upon the first sheet of rock 
to which they came, since this answered the letter of 
the contract. Sometime later there came a fearful 
storm which put these bridges to a trying test, and 
the bridge that had been built upon the false founda- 
tion went down ; the other, which had been built 
upon the rock, the bed-rock, stood,' and it stands 
to-day as a splendid witness to the fidelity of the 
builders ! Young people, I believe, to-night, that next 
to gaining the favor of almighty God is the acquiring 
and holding of the confidence of right-thinking men. 
If you would stand the tests and strains to which you 
will certainly be put, build your character upon the 
Rock of Ages. 

The other path in which Christ leads is the path 
of benevolence. The Christian, the citizen of the 
kingdom of God, will not be satisfied with merely 
keeping to the right and giving to all their just dues. 
Jesus went a great deal further than that, and we, 
too, must do so if we would truly follow him. The 
Christian not only does justly, but loves mercy. To 
do good to all men as we have opportunity ; to do 
good to those who have no claim upon us but the 
claim of human brotherhood; to show kindness to the 



50 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

ungrateful and the evil — all these belong to the true 
expression of the divine life in the human soul. The 
true Christian is bent not simply upon his own salva- 
tion, but seeks to accomplish it through efforts for 
good in behalf of others. It was at a moment of 
his supreme God-consciousness that Jesus, knowing 
that he had come from God and would return to him, 
took a towel and began to wash his disciples' feet, 
and by so doing revealed to us that to serve is at once 
the true nature of God and God's ideal for the life of 
man. There are two pictures called "Rock of Ages" 
which I have frequently seen in the homes of this 
community. In both pictures the sky is dark and 
lowering. The waves impelled by the storm are beat- 
ing high. In the one a lady is clinging with JDoth 
hands to a cross on the rocks. In the other the woman 
clinging to the cross is holding to it with one hand, 
and with the other she is endeavoring to rescue some 
one from the wild waves. The latter is the true 
picture. 

To be a Christian is to be a follower of Christ. 
And to follow Christ means always integrity and be- 
nevolence. The Christian religion where it is per- 
mitted to bear its true fruit will always make men 
upright and generous. 

The last of' the principles here emphasized which 
I wish to call to your attention is aggregation. "Seek 
ye first his kingdom and its righteousness ; and all 
these things shall be added unto you." 

In God's sight the basic fact with regard to any 
man is not what he has, or what position he holds, 
or the kind of work he does, or what he knows, but 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 51 

vrhat he is. Character manifested in integrity and 
service is the essential thing. Character is primary; 
position, wealth and knowledge are secondary. But 
when the divinely conceived order has been fixed in 
the heart, you may get anything. A young man who 
had just entered upon the Christian life once asked 
an older man if it were safe for a young man to get 
riches. The older man wisely answered, "It is safe 
for a young man to get anything if he first gets Jesus 
Christ and holds on to him." Accepting Christ's 
order, "All is yours" — the rich heritage of the past, 
the golden opportunities of the present and the splen- 
did promise of the future. But do not reverse the 
divinely conceived order of a successful life. 

And now do you ask me what the kingdom of 
God is. It is not a separate inclosure, not a bounded 
kingdom, but a pervasive spirit. The kingdom of 
God fully come is goodness made natural, vital, sub- 
missive and dynamic in the lives of men. 

I congratulate you, young people, upon having 
successfully completed a course of study in our public 
schools. You have persisted unto the end when many 
fail to persist. You have been putting yourselves in 
the way of larger power and usefulness in the world. 
I am not concerned overmuch as to the particular 
work you may do in life. I do plead with you, how- 
ever, to consecrate your acquired power and efficiency 
to the interests of the kingdom of God. I remind you 
that the object of all education is to fit men for 
service. Upon the campus of Antioch College at Yel- 
low Springs, O., where the body of Horace Mann was 
first buried, a marble shaft has been erected to his 



52 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

memory. Upon it these words of his have been en- 
graved : "I beseech you, accept these my parting 
words : be ashamed to die until you have won some 
victory for humanity." May we take the words of 
the great educator to ourselves. 




W. J. Cocke. 



54 



W. J. COCKE. 

Was born in Louisa County, Ya. Three of his 
maternal great-uncles were preachers in the church 
of Christ. He was educated under the tutorship of 
Capt. John Richardson, that prince of teachers, for 
six years, and then at Transylvania University and the 
College of the Bible, Lexington, Ky. He has la- 
bored widely in many of the States. Has been State 
evangelist of Maryland, Georgia and Kentucky. Has 
held important pastorates in the East. Is now located 
at Greensburg, Ind. ; has charge of the church there, 
but also evangelizes a good deal. He is thoroughly 
equipped for his work, has had splendid success in 
many fields, and can expound the old Book — which he 
knows — unto edification and with great clearness. 



55 



SERMON IV, 

A SIGNIFICANT CONVERSION. 

W. J. Cocke. 

The tenth chapter of Acts is a wonderful chapter 
among many wonderful chapters in that little book. 
The story contained in this chapter marks an epoch 
in the spread of gospel truth. It records the history 
of a most unique conversion, evinces the wonderful 
wisdom *of God in selecting the subject of this conver- 
sion, and publishes to the world the method and 
breadth of divine philanthropy. I do not recall a 
single thing I have anywhere read on the conversion 
of Cornelius outside the simple story of the New 
Testament. This may be unfortunate for me, but it 
will, I trust, be fortunate for those who hear me. 
Unconsciously, many things may influence me and 
color what I say, but I shall cling to the record of 
fact in this, to me, fascinating incident. 

FOUR THINGS. 

Four avenues are opened that we may walk within 
them. Four lines along which we may proceed mani- 
fest themselves. They are : 

I. The man Cornelius. 

II. Things done because he was a Gentile — the first 
Gentile convert. 

(3) 57 



58 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

III. Things essential to his conversion — to make' 
him a Christian. 

IV. Things that follow. 

Through this simple analysis, I am sure, we shall 
be privileged to go to the heart of this great subject. 
By it we shall be able to get rid of a great deal of con- 
fusion and misunderstanding. Moreover, in it we shall 
behold the marvelous outworking of our Father's wis- 
dom and will. And we shall be introduced to one of 
the most unique conversions of all time. 

I. The man Cornelius. In what is briefly said we 
have enough to give us an insight into the make-up of 
this splendid man. Turning to the account, we may 
read the elements that enter into the character and life 
of this man. In studying the character of Cornelius, it 
would not be difficult to read much between the lines ; 
but we shall be content to note what is expressed. 

1. His name is given. We feel that we are nearer 
to him on that account. There is a nearness, a con- 
creteness, an attraction in knowing the name of a 
person. 

2. His home at this time was at Csesarea. We like 
to know about one's home too. How long he had 
been there we know not. But here in the land of the 
one true religion we find him. 

3. His occupation was that of a soldier. We usu- 
ally wish to know what a man does. He was a Roman 
officer of the Italian Band. These show in what es- 
teem he was held by the powers that be. They also 
point to pagan Rome, from which possibly he had 
been sent and where he may have been born and 
reared. In other words, that his religion had once 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 59 

been that of the pagan city whence he came. 

4. He was "a devout man." Already early asso- 
ciations, prejudices and environments had been over- 
come. All his energies had been laid on God's altar. 
He had been lifted above and away from the petty 
gods of Rome to the one true and living God of the 
Hebrews. No long-er at heathen shrines and on pagan 
altars were his offerings placed. He was next to the 
great, loving, living God now. 

5. He "feared God with all his house." What a 
home ! Holy, reverent fear filled his heart and was the 
very atmosphere his loved ones breathed. How beau- 
tifully it all fitted him for God's purpose. 

6. He "gave much alms to the people." His was 
a generous, liberal soul. He saw the need of others, 
and he gave to meet it. 

7. He "prayed to God always." The invisible link 
that binds the heart of man to God bound the 
heart of this man continually. His prayers and his 
alms had erected for him a memorial at the very feet 
of God! 

Thus, as we see the devotion, the honesty, the 
reverence, the generosity of this man; how he stood 
with God and must have stood with man ; one to whom 
neither Jew nor Gentile could ever object; one upon 
whom the touch of God had come and who was bent 
upon doing the will of his God as best he knew it — 
do we not see also the divine wisdom in his selection 
as the first to be used in demonstration of the fact that 
"God is no respecter of persons," and that the gospel 
is "to every creature"? Above everything else, do 
we not see here a man who is honest, who will act 



60 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

always up to the light that comes to him, and who 
places himself in the line of God's intention? 

II. Things done because he was a Gentile — the 
first Gentile convert. We must clearly distinguish be- 
tween the things related here, occurring because Cor- 
nelius was a Gentile, the first Gentile convert, and 
those related because he was a sinner. All is mislead- 
ing unless we do this. Failure to do this may have 
licensed expectancy in some, of visions and voices in 
addition to the gospel call in God's word. 

THREE MIRACLES. 

Three things occur on account of his being the 
first Gentile convert. Let us note these carefully. 
They are: 

I. The visit of the angel to Cornelius and the 
angel's message. These were not for the purpose of 
converting the man. The gospel has not been given 
to angels to preach, but has been committed to men, 
to "earthen vessels," that the glory might be of God 
and that humanity might be honored in imparting it 
to humanity. Even Jesus refrained from preaching 
the gospel to Saul. Ananias was chosen to do this. 
So the angel here came not for purposes of preach- 
ing and converting, but to do exactly what the text 
says : "Send men to Joppa, and fetch Simon, whose 
surname is Peter, who shall speak unto thee words, 
whereby thou shalt be saved, thou and all thy house" 
(10:5; 11: 14) . The visit of the angel was a miracle 
to direct Cornelius to whom he must send and where 
he must go to find the word of salvation. Keep this 
distinction clearly in mind. As we have the very 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 61 

words of salvation in the New Testament to-clay, that 
is sufficient. No angel is needed and none will be 
sent. Visions constitute no part of conversion. Be 
sure of that. The gospel is God's power unto salva- 
tion, and the law of the Lord converteth the soul. 

2. The vision to Peter at Joppa. Immediately 
Cornelius does what the angel tells him to do. He 
sends men to Joppa to Peter. Peter has gone up on 
the housetop to pray. He falls asleep. Heaven is 
open. He sees a sheet let down thence three times. 
A voice commands him to rise, slay and eat. He re- 
fuses. It is against his Jewish religion to eat that 
which is common and unclean. Possibly he never 
thought of the universality of his great Pentecostal 
message. But the repetition of the vision is im- 
pressive. He vaguely begins to comprehend some- 
what of its meaning. The coming of the men from 
Cornelius has been divinely timed. They knock at 
the door. Things grow clearer to this Jew so full 
of prejudice. He lodges the men. On the morrow 
he gets ready to go with them, but he still wants to 
be on the safe side. He takes with him "certain of 
the brethren from Joppa." God has now given Peter 
to understand that something out of the ordinary is 
going to take place. He goes to the house of Corne- 
lius as soon as he can get there. The purpose of this 
vision was to. convert Peter in a sense, but not to 
convert Cornelius in any sense. It was to bring the 
preacher to the home of this Gentile, to lead him to 
know that the gospel embraced not only Jews, but all 
men. For that, we see the necessity of this miracle. 
Our knowledge of the purpose of this miracle teaches 



62 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

us that in conversion there are no miracles to-day; 
they are unnecessary. Hence, we should not expect 
them. 

3. The baptism of the Holy Spirit. This third 
miracle has now taken place. It is God's seal that 
Peter has made no mistake in coming to Cornelius, 
and Cornelius made none in sending for Peter. The 
way is open, and all scruples may be laid aside. 
There can no longer be a doubt. This final witness 
of heaven sets all at rest. The Gentiles are to be 
saved as well as the Jews. They are to be fellow- 
heirs. There is to be no difference between them. 
All stand on the same level, and are to be saved alike. 
And the time had now come for that to be done. 

These three miracles, I repeat, were then to show 
that the Gentiles were to be accepted and that this 
man was to be the first. That was God's will. To 
make of two peoples, distinct by race and religion, 
one new man, thereby blotting out all racial difference 
and prejudice, and binding together both in one splen- 
did brotherhood ; to bring in the Gentile and reconcile 
the Jew and thereby make Christian compeers of 
them ; in a word, to banish forever all racial and re- 
ligious inequality and save the whole world — these 
are the things declared by the presence of miracles 
here. 

III. Things essential to his conversion — to make 
him a Christian. There are certain elements that 
enter into every conversion. Without these there 
could be no Scriptural conversion. We now proceed 
to show that these things obtain here. 

1. The preaching of the gospel. This is God's 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 63 

method and his means of saving men. There is no 
other revealed. Peter did this on Pentecost. He does 
it here. However good a man may be, or seem to be, 
it takes this to save him. "Preach the word." 

2. Hearing the gospel, the word of the Lord. 
They were ready to hear. They heard. This link 
must not be left out. It is essential to conversion. 
"Faith comes by hearing." 

3. Believing the gospel. Verse 34 tells us that 
Peter preached. Verse 33 informs us that they heard, 
and verse 43 and 15:9 teach us that they believed. 
"Without faith it is impossible to please him." Faith 
is essential to salvation. Not an intellectual assent to 
a proposition simply, but a personal trust in a new- 
found Saviour, and that for salvation. Another thing 
without which conversion could not be. 

4. Repenting of sin. This is also vital. It is the 
crux, the turning-point. Man is away from God, sep- 
arated from him on account of sin. His life, his in- 
tellect, his emotions and his will are alienated from a 
saving source. He is in rebellion. He must sur- 
render. Unconditionally so. Repentance, a radical 
change of the will, meets the need, and is the only" 
thing that does. Repentance is before remission, and 
"except you repent, you shall all likewise perish." 
Did Cornelius repent? We know that he did for two 
reasons. It was necessary, and the record says that 
lie did. (Acts 11 : 18.) No sinner can approach God 
unless he travel this road that leads him into the 
valley of self-abasement and unconditional surrender. 
■"The way of the cross leads home." 

5. Confessing Christ. Ah! you say, there is no 



64 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

formal confession here. True. And I can as truly 
say that there is not a case of conversion given in 
the New Testament where all of the essential elements 
entering into conversion are expressed. Often one is 
implied, sometimes more than one. There are strong 
reasons leading us to think that Cornelius did make 
the good confession. He was evidently ready to do 
whatever Peter told him he ought to do. Peter would 
recall that he himself once made that same con- 
fession and that his Lord pronounced a blessing upon 
him for it. He would also remember that Jesus said, 
"He that confesseth me before men, him will I con- 
fess before my Father and the holy angels." He 
would know that this confession was the first public 
surrender of the soul to God. That it was the apos- 
tolic custom and led on to salvation, as is evident in 
Paul's teaching. "And shalt confess with thy mouth 
Jesus as Lord, . . . thou shalt be saved;" and that 
"with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" 
(Rom. 10 : 9, 10). It was then necessary to make this 
confession with the mouth, before men, previous to 
his baptism in water, "unto salvation." But whether 
there was a formal confession or not, though, as 
said, we have every reason to expect it, by his baptism 
Cornelius did make a public and unquestionable con- 
fession. Here he confessed his faith in the authority, 
and accepted the leadership, of Jesus. Into the waters 
of that ordinance he would follow his Master, and 
that would suffice. 

6. Being baptized. By this I mean baptism in 
water. They had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, 
but that did not belong to conversion, and hence 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 65 

would not answer. Peter commanded them to be bap- 
tized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Water baptism 
is a part of every Scriptural conversion. It is com- 
manded by the Lord Jesus, and the command is re- 
peated by his apostles. If on no other ground than 
this, baptism is thus made necessary. It is a sin to 
evade it and strive by some short cut to come to 
salvation and ultimately to heaven. No loyal soul 
will do so, and it is perilous to tamper with the man- 
date of Jesus. And to forever put a quietus on such 
cavils as, '"I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, 
and I do not need water baptism," Peter commands 
that Cornelius and his household be baptized in water. 
They were "buried with him," "born of the water," 
"planted," "raised," "washed." And all this was done 
in baptism, which is immersion, of course. "If my 
mind must be immersed in the thought of Jesus, if 
my heart must be immersed in the love of Jesus, if 
my will must be immersed in the will of Jesus, then 
nothing will express that but the submersion of my 
whole person in water in the name of Jesus." 

7. Saved. This is the goal of every soul repelled 
by sin and attracted by Jesus. It is essential to every 
conversion. Its import here is the same as in that 
declaration of the Saviour when he said, "He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Not 
eternally saved as yet, but saved from past sins, how- 
ever few or many they be. Saved in the sense of 
"remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). His past sins are 
"blotted out" and "remembered against him no more 
for ever." Converted, cleansed by the blood of Christ, 
acquitted, he now turns to the future to outwork that 



66 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

which has been inwrought, his eternal salvation (PhiL 
2: 12, 13). To his primary obedience he is now ready 
to add the growing graces of the life that follows (2 
Pet. 1:5-8), unto the "crown of life" (Rev. 2:10). 
More and more he is partaking of the divine nature 
(2 Pet. 1:5). His sins remitted, the Holy Spirit 
dwelling in him, he rejoices "in the hope of the glory 
of God," as he labors to the end that he may win the 
home of the soul. 

IV. Things that follow. I do not mean by these 
those elements entering into the make-up of the Chris- 
tian life. This might naturally be expected, unless 
you remember that they have been included in the 
thoughts already expressed. But I mean some im- 
portant points arising from the conversion of Corne- 
lius. I think I can best make myself understood by 
putting these in the form of questions. 

1. Have miracles ceased? We have said that 
three miracles were wrought here. They cluster 
about the conversion of this man. That miracles have 
ceased, that they constitute no part of conversion,, 
that they are entirely unnecessary to-day, and need 
not be expected, is only too true and has already been 
stated. They were necessary to establish the gospel 
and Christianity, but since that is done, the evidence 
of regenerated souls, of redeemed communities and 
nations, is sufficient. Miracles now would infringe 
upon the free agency of man and reflect upon the all- 
sufficiency of the word of God. Therefore, they hap- 
pen neither in conversion nor in anything else. "If 
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
they believe though one rise from the dead." 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 67 

2. Do miracles possess evidential value? Did 
they? I am more than ever convinced that those who 
would deny evidential force to miracles, in reality, 
desire to eliminate them altogether. This is only a 
covert way of getting at it. I speak this advisedly. 
It is true that the redeemed life is unanswerable testi- 
mony to the divine origin of the Bible and of the 
Christian religion. The power of Jesus in the world 
now obviates the necessity of miracles in this age. 
But that miracles did have force in convincing men 
of the deity of Jesus, of the divine nature and origin 
of his holy religion, as well as the authority of his 
revealed will, I believe no intelligent and sincere man 
will deny. Before deciding this, however, kindly look 
into the following portions of the Book of John. 
Read the third, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth chap- 
ters of this book. What was it that led Nicodemus 
to say what he did? (3:2). What was it that con- 
vinced the woman of Samaria that Jesus was a 
prophet? What was it that led the blind man to con- 
fess that Jesus was the Son of God? What force has 
the miracle in Acts 4 : 16-23 ? W 7 hat is the meaning in 
Heb. 2:4? How could God "bear witness in signs 
and wonders," and miracles have no evidential value? 
And what was it that convinced Peter and the rest 
of the Jewish brethren that God's purpose was. to 
have the gospel go to the Gentiles as well as to the 
Jews, that compelled them to believe that God is "no 
respecter of persons," and that the gospel is so divine 
and so philanthropic that it is intended to bless both 
Jews and Gentiles? And finally, why did Jesus ap- 
peal to his own works as evidence producing faith? 



68 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

(John 5:36). To ask these questions is to answer 
them. Tear miracles away and you at once take away 
God's ''confirming" of Christianity. You take away 
Jesus Christ and Christianity, the greatest miracles 
of all ! You make both impossible ! 

3. Do we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit 
before we are baptized in water? Indeed, do we re- 
ceive that baptism at all to-day? I do not wish to 
be dogmatic, but I must say that we do not receive 
the baptism of the Holy Spirit to-day, neither before 
nor after water baptism. We receive the "gift of the 
Holy Spirit" upon compliance with the conditions 
given (Acts 2:38), but this is not the "baptism of 
the Spirit." The purpose of this last has been served. 
It is not necessary to-day. We can not show the 
effect that followed Spirit baptism then, and of course 
we have not the cause. We can not speak with 
tongues, heal, prophesy and raise the dead now. Men 
were baptized in the Spirit then, and they wrote books 
with divine authority and inerrancy. Can any one 
do this to-day? Surely not in the sense in which the 
Bible is such. Presumption may lead some to claim 
this power, to write books such as the "Key to the 
Scriptures" or the "Book of Mormon." But sane, 
sincere people repudiate all such attempts to trespass 
upon the prerogatives of the inspired, Spirit-baptized 
writers of the New Testament. But, to test this 
matter, I might put it thus: The good Methodist 
brother says he has been baptized in the Holy Spirit. 
The Baptist says the same. Yet the Methodist says 
there are three forms of baptism, while the Baptist 
says there is but one. If they are, as they claim, 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 69 

baptized in the Spirit, both must be right. They can 
not both be right. Here we have the Spirit against 
the Spirit! And this is absurd. Fact is, neither of 
them is baptized in the Spirit, though both may, on 
account of obedience, have the Holy Spirit dwelling 
in their hearts. Remember, the Spirit came as it did 
on Pentecost to give the apostles an absolutely flawless 
gospel, to crown this message with God's authority, 
to enable them to convince the world that this was 
God's message. Likewise the Spirit baptism came at 
the conversion of Cornelius to confirm the fact that 
it was God's will that the Gentiles should be saved as 
well as the Jews. The authority and universality of 
this divine evangel are sealed forever by this sublime 
miracle. 

4. Are the prayers of sinners answered? Until he 
heard the gospel, Cornelius was an unsaved man 
(Acts 11:14). Without discussing this question to 
any great extent, let me say that up to this hour 
Cornelius had ever acted up to the light he had. He 
Could not be honest and do otherwise. His prayers 
had come up as "a memorial before God." As soon 
as he hears the gospel he obeys it. With him a duty 
known is a duty done. In his heart there was the 
fixed determination to do the will of God as he dis- 
covered that will. The prayers of all such are an- 
swered, or all of us are lost. On the other hand, if 
we pray and do not act up to the light coming to us, 
in refraining from sin and doing the will of our 
Father as best we can, God does not hear, does not 
answer, our prayer. Why should he? 

5. Are moral men saved? May I ask any moral 



70 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

man in the world, however good he may be or seem 
to be, kindly to read the story of Cornelius here given, 
and then frankly to tell me if he believes himself to 
be as good as Cornelius? I want you to do this, 
brother. I can tell you now that in this wide, wide 
world there is not a moral man who will measure up 
to this centurion. Not one. If, then, it took the 
gospel to save him — better than the best of you — how 
can you hope to be saved except you do as he did? 
If in your life there is a single sin or stain of sin, 
what provision outside of Jesus and his gospel is 
there for your case? You may shine as the glittering 
diamond, but you lack the life of God, the life im- 
mortal. Life and immortality were brought to light 
in the gospel. You attempt to draw on the bank of 
heaven when you have no account there, no money 
there. Your claim will be denied, for it is fraudulent ; 
your check will be dishonored, for it is a forgery. So 
far as you are concerned, that bank lacks the invested 
life, and that check "the name that is above every 
name." "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." 
The only saving message comes to you to-day. 
Hear it, believe it, repent, declare your faith, be bap- 
tized; then be faithful unto death. Come to-day. 




T. J. Legg. 



72 



T. J. LEGG. 

T. J. Legg was born at Raleigh, Rush Co., Ind., 
Apr. 12, 1849. Reared on the farm, inured to the 
severest toil, as he was the oldest of seven children, 
and helped to clear the home farm in the Miami In- 
dian Reserve, now Tipton County, to which his father 
removed in his childhood. Educated in the common 
schools, private tutelage, Xew London Academy, 
Howard College and Hall's Business College, Logans- 
port. Served a term in engineering and construction 
service under direction of the military department on 
the Western plains and in the Rocky Mountains in 
the late sixties. Taught school for several years dur- 
ing winter ; and then served a term in locomotive 
service on the railroad. Returned to teaching — nine 
years' service in the Logansport city schools and 
Hall's Business College. Baptized by Jacob B. Blount, 
Nov. 30, 1870. Married to Elizabeth C. Johnson, July 
4, 1 87 1. Served eight years as inspector and under- 
writer in fire insurance, and while traveling engaged 
actively in Sunday-school work. Has traveled ex- 
tensively, visiting every State and Territory in the 
Union, and making two journeys (1891 and 1895) to 
the eastern hemisphere. Began service as State evan- 
gelist under the Indiana Christian Sunday-school As- 
sociation in 1872, and is now serving his twentieth 
year of continuous service, under the State Christian 
Sunday-school Association, or the State Missionary 
Association, or both jointly a part of the time. Has 
organized 116 churches and held 268 meetings in In- 
diana. 

73 



SERMON V. 

THE WORLD'S GREAT COMMON 
DENOMINATOR. 

T. J. Legg. 

Lesson. — Acts 2 : 14-41 : Peter's Sermon on the Day of 
Pentecost. 

We are to have two sermons in one to-day. I 
have already read in your hearing Peter's wonderful 
sermon on the day of Pentecost; and if mine can be 
called a sermon at all, you will hear it now. After the 
manifestations of the Holy Spirit, Peter and the other 
eleven apostles were preaching in seventeen different 
tongues, or languages, and Peter's sermon has been 
signed, sealed and delivered by the Holy Spirit, for 
the eternal ages. Fortifying himself with quotations 
from the prophecies of the Old Testament and from 
David, he preached a sermon of historical fulfillment, 
during the past fifty-two days of which his auditors 
were themselves a part, and of the facts of which they 
themselves were witnesses. Being Jews, they were 
familiar with the Old Testament prophecies, and be- 
ing themselves eye and ear witnesses to the historical 
facts cited by the apostles, they not only believed, but 
positively knew his statements to be correct. Hence 
their question, "Men and brethren, what shall we do ?" 
and Peter's direct answer, "Repent, and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the 



76 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the 
Holy Spirit," followed by the statement of the Holy 
Spirit : "Then they that gladly received the word were 
baptized; and there were added unto them the same 
day about three thousand souls." Here, then, was the 
beginning. Peter had preached the resurrection of 
Christ from the dead ; had preached Christ, who had 
promised that "on this rock I will build my church." 
But now what were they individually, and to what 
church did they belong, when the whole process was 
complete ? 

Suppose, now, that no one in this city had ever 
read or heard that sermon, and that some one, 
whose knowledge and authority were beyond ques- 
tion, should come to this tent, filled with people 
as it is now, and preach that same sermon, and one 
man should believe it, and should ask the same 
question asked by the three thousand of Peter, and 
should receive the same answer, and then, acting on 
his faith, should go and do just what the three thou- 
sand did, when the process was ended — completed — 
what would you call him? What could you call him? 
"And the disciples were called Christians first in 
Antioch" (Acts n : 26). There you have it, the name 
in the singular number. 

Suppose that a considerable plurality of men and 
women — people of responsible age and understanding 
— should believe the facts of that same sermon, ask 
the same question, receive the same answer, and per- 
form the same act of obedience, what name would you 
apply to them? In speaking of them, how would you, 
or how could you, designate them? Clearly, it would 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 77 

be by the same name, only in the plural number, 
simply Christians — nothing more, nothing less, and 
nothing else. 

Now, suppose these Christians should appoint 
servants — deacons — and elders, and organize them- 
selves just as the people who believed and acted on 
Peter's sermon, after Pentecost, at Jerusalem and 
throughout the civilized world during the first three 
centuries after Christ, organized themselves, into a 
church, or congregation, what would you call that 
church? Some one says, ".Catholics." Why did it 
not make a Catholic church on the day of Pentecost 
at Jerusalem? Another says, "Lutherans." Why 
did it not make Lutherans of the Samaritans? An- 
other, "Episcopalians." Why did it not make an 
Episcopalian of the eunuch? Another, "Presby- 
terians." Why did it not make Presbyterians of 
Lydia and her store clerks? And yet another, "Bap- 
tists." Why did they not vote them in, and why did 
it not make Baptists of the Roman regular army 
captain and his military staff? Still another, "Meth- 
odists." Why did it not make Methodists of the 
Philippian jailer and his deputies? Finally, another, 
"Campbellites." Why did it not make a Campbellite 
of Saul of Tarsus? Well, what name could apply 
to such a church, or congregation, without outraging 
the New Testament original church? Going back to 
the same Testament, the same book of Holy Writ, 
we would find the name, "The church [singular] of 
Christ" (Rom. 16: 16). 

Now, suppose, further, that all the people — of all 
denominations — who love the Lord would now go 



78 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

back and read that sermon, and believe it, and, on 
faith in Jesus Christ, do just what believers in the 
first three Christian centuries did — individually, col- 
lectively, organization and all, what would it produce ? 
Unity "in Christ," and the Lord's last, holiest prayer, 
"As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they 
may be one in us," would be answered. It is for that 
holy purpose that we propose to organize a church, or 
congregation, in this city, into which all who prefer 
the simple church of Christ — the unity of God's 
people — to denominationalism, may come and find a 
home ; and where the sinner may be cleansed from 
his sins, without wrestling with human creeds, and 
the mystifying nomenclature of ecclesiastical classi- 
fication and divisions. 

But some one remarks, "Oh, I know you Christian 
Church people make a great plea for 'Christian unity' 
as you call it, and you really would like to see the 
Christian world united, provided all others would 
come over and join you; but such a plea, with such a 
provision, is the very essence of selfishness, and self- 
ishness is entirely foreign to the spirit of Christ." 
Devout, serious-minded people make this charge 
honestly, and it is a serious accusation. But they 
make it ignorant of our position, or through misin- 
formation of the position we occupy. But I want to 
set you right in the premises, that you may reach a 
right conclusion. I have not consulted the elders 
and deacons of this new congregation forming here, 
but I will submit this proposition : that each church 
in this county, excepting the churches of Christ or 
Christian Churches, appoint a committee of three 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 79 

representative members, and that these several repre- 
sentative committees meet, and choose a moderator, 
and as a committee of the whole on "Christian Unity," 
bring in a report of agreement on four fundamental 
points, as follows: 

i. As a united body of believers, what name shall 
we take? 

2. As a united body, what shall we teach? 

3. As a united body, who shall be eligible to mem- 
bership, and how? 

4. As a united body, how shall we be governed? 
And my further proposition is, that, having no 

voice in the matter, for no "Church of Christ" con- 
gregation is to be represented in the committee, and 
you have the whole matter in your own hands, that 
when your committee has agreed on these four fun- 
damental points, and brought in its report, and that 
report has been ratified by the churches, we will not 
ask you to join us, but we will come over and join 
you; and as to some extent a representative in service 
at least, I will agree to turn over to you, not only the 
churches. of Christ of this county, but the thousand 
congregations, more or less, in this State, with all of 
their ministers, elders, deacons, membership, prop- 
erty and untold millions of wealth. And if I don't 
perform what I promise, I volunteer to stand before 
you, stultified. The matter is in your own hands. 
What an offer ! What an opportunity ! Will you ac- 
cept it? God help you. 

There is nothing godlike, Christlike, divine, to pre- 
vent. The only difficulties . are human, and may be 
overcome. The committees meet, choose a moderator, 



80 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

organize as a committee of the whole, and begin con- 
sideration of the four points of practice submitted to 
them. 

i ''What name shall we take as a united body?" 
A Catholic priest arises and says : "Since the name 
my church bears is the oldest human name applied to 
the Lord's people, let us call ourselves 'Catholics.' " 
An emphatic protest would come from the Lutheran 
group. No agreement here. "Lutherans?" No 
Catholic would agree to that. "Episcopalians?" The 
Presbyterians would dissent emphatically. . "Bap- 
tists?'' The Methodists and Quakers would with- 
draw. Some one wiser than the rest might suggest, 
"Since we can not agree on any of our human appella- 
tions, why not look into the 'Book'?" Suiting the 
action to the word, they look, and find, "And the dis- 
ciples were called Christians first in Antioch" (Acts 
11:26), and "the churches of Christ" (Rom. 16: 16). 
They have found the names applied by the Holy Spirit 
to the members individually, and also as organized 
bodies, and now the committee is unanimous, and 
point number one is settled ; but it was only settled 
when they went back to the "Book," which they had 
left and became separated. 

2. "As a united body, what shall zve teach ?" The 
Calvinists — Presbyterians, Baptists and some of the 
Congregationalists — would propose that "foreordina- 
tion and predestination" shall be the fundamentals ; 
but the Arminians — Catholics, Methodists, United 
Brethren and others — would dissent, and propose in- 
stead that we teach "free grace," and that "all can be 
saved who will trust the Lord." Here again is an 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 81 

irreconcilable difference, and speculative theology runs 
at high tide through the discussions, with no result 
except the widening of the breach, until some wiser 
member of the committee proposes that they go back 
to the "Book." They read the Lord's farewell ad- 
dress, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, bap- 
tising them into the name" (Matt. 28: 19), and "Go 
ye . . . and preach the gospel, and he that believeth 
and is baptised shall be saved; and he that believeth 
not shall be damned" (Mark 16: 16). Preach the 
gospel, and teach everybody, and put the responsi- 
bility of believing up to the hearer. Now they are 
agreed on point number two, but they agreed only 
when they returned to the ancient "Book," which they 
had aforetime deserted. 

3. "As a united body, who shall be eligible to mem- 
bership, and how?" The pedobaptists would say, 
"Everybody ; and since this proposition includes in- 
fants, we are compelled to resort to the expedient of 
affusion to bring them into the church." But the 
Baptists and Brethren would withdraw rather than 
agree to such practices — no infant church member- 
ship for them. Again there can be no agreement, un- 
til they go back reverently to the "Book." Here they 
find : "Then they that gladly received the word were 
baptized, and there were added unto them . . . about 
three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41) ; "And when they 
believed Philip preaching . . . the name of Jesus 
Christ, they were baptized, both men and women" 
(Acts 8: 12) ; "If thou believest with all thine heart, 
thou may est [be baptized]" (Acts 2:37); "Buried 
with him in baptism" (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2: 12). Here 



82 THE INDIANA PULPIT. 

we have the eligibility to membership (faith in Christ 
— belief) and the law of admission (buried with 
Christ in baptism) defined, and again we have agree- 
ment, but not till we have returned to the "Book" 
which had been deserted, and point number three is 
settled. 

4. "As a united body, hozv shall we be governed?" 
The Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyte- 
rians, Baptists, Methodists and others present the ex- 
cellencies of their several and respective systems of 
government, but there is no agreement — there can be 
none — but they all believe in the infallibility of the 
"Book," and they go back to the divine law and read, 
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, . . . that 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works' (2 Tim. 3 : 16). They read from 
Romans to Jude, and find that every complication in 
Christian life, whether individual, congregational, or 
in the world-wide work of the whole brotherhood in 
Christ, is met from sixteen to'101 times. They agree 
upon the divine law for future government, and point 
number four is settled — all points are settled. They 
give thanks reverently, and bring in their report, and 
the report is ratified by the respective churches — and 
we do not move a peg; they have simply come to the 
position we occupy, and I was perfectly safe in my 
r>r/>^osition, for we do not have to join that which is 
already together with us. 

I see present in the tent this morning young people 
from the college, the high school, the grammar, and 
even the primary grades. I call your attention to 
the diagram on the chart. 




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84 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

In the first diagram we have two circles — the inner 
and the outer circle. Let the inner circle represent 
Christ, the center of all religious truth, and on the 
periphery of the outer circle we have represented four 
great so-called religions : Confucianism, Mohamme- 
danism, Buddhism, and the Persian represented by- 
Zoroaster, together with four great Protestant de- 
nominations of Christianity. The world ought to be 
united religiously. Everybody admits that, and every 
devout heart prays for its consummation. We all 
want to bring Zoroaster and Mohammed together — 
unite them religiously. Can we bring Zoroaster around 
by way of Confucius to Mohammed, or Mohammed 
around by way of Buddha to Zoroaster? Evidently 
not. It has already cost too much blood and treasure 
in the attempts already made, and failed, for the Per- 
sian will not accept Mohammed, nor will the Moham- 
medan accept Zoroaster. But both of them do accept 
Christ by thousands every year in answer to mis- 
sionary effort on behalf of Christ, even though that 
effort presents oft-times only a partial gospel. If we 
can get Zoroaster to come to Christ without any 
mental reservation — "with the whole heart" — and 
stand zvith Christ and in Christ, and we can persuade 
Mohammed to do the same, then it is a geometrical 
proposition, and axiomatic in its very nature, that 
Zoroaster and Mohammed stand together — united — 
for they both stand in Christ, and with Christ. 

All that I have said of Zoroaster and Mohammed, 
you have no doubt already anticipated, will equally 
apply to Buddha and Confucius. You can not make 
one of the other, nor vice versa. It has already cost 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 85 

humanity too much, and always failed, to try it again. 
But let each of them come direct to Christ — and they 
do that by thousands, through the efforts of mission- 
aries, every year — and stand with him and in him, 
and they stand together — united — an axiomatic state- 
ment which needs no elucidation. And thus the four 
great heathen civilizations would be united, and the 
peace of the world would be enhanced in the uplift of 
Christ and the extension of his kingdom. 

But let us get nearer home. On the periphery of 
that same outer circle you notice the names of four 
great, splendid denominational churches. I would 
have placed more had space permitted. We all admit 
that they ought to be united, that they ought to pool 
their virtues and stand together. It is too bad that 
two splendid churches, such as the Methodist Church 
with its zeal for service, and the Baptist Church with 
its reverence for the ordinances of God, should be 
separated. Can we bring the Methodist around by 
way of the Presbyterian and make a Baptist of him? 
Or can we bring the Baptist around by way of the 
Lutheran and convert him to Methodism? Either 
effort would fail, does fail, and has always failed. 
But if we can get each of them to leave behind every- 
thing that distinguishes him from all others of God's 
people, and without any mental reservation — "with 
the whole heart" — come to Christ and stand with him, 
and in him, then they stand together — united. It is 
really an unspeakable misfortune that the reverent, 
stable, religious Lutheran Church, and that old rock- 
ribbed Presbyterian Church, with its educated min- 
istry, and its refined and dignified service, should be 



86 THE INDIANA PULPIT / 

separated. What I have said of the good Methodist 
and Baptist Churches would equally apply to the 
Lutheran and Presbyterian Churches, and to every 
other denominational body. If each will throw aside 
every distinguishing mark, and all that has in it no 
saving sense or power, and cleave only to Him who 
saves, and come to Christ, and stand with him and in 
him, then the Christian world will stand together — 
united. 

I invite the boys and girls to help me solve the 
problems on this second diagram. As you see, it is a 
problem in addition of common fractions. A fraction 
is a part of anything. It consists of two parts — the 
numerator and the denominator. The latter denotes 
the name of the parts considered, and the numerator 
expresses the number of parts taken. Addition is the 
synthetic — the building together — process of arithme- 
tic. Mankind is divided into great religious parts, or 
fractions. Let us add together five great religious 
fractions of the world. Notice the numerators and 
the denominators under each. Now let us add: 
Twenty Zoroasterians plus 20 Confucianists plus 20 
Buddhists plus 20 Mohammedans plus 20 Mormons 
equals 100 what? You can not answer? Certainly 
not; neither can God nor the angels in heaven. What 
must be done with common fractions having different 
denominators, before they can be added? "Reduce 
them to a common denominator/' Yes, that is right. 
Now let us proceed, and you older fractions with 
varying denominators listen. Let us take Zoroaster 
for the common denominator. No, the others will not 
accept him. Confucius? No, he is objectionable to 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 87 

all the others. Which one, then? None, for not one 
of them is satisfactory to any of the others. Who, 
then, can we have for a common denominator ? Christ 
— "the only name given under heaven and among men 
whereby we must be saved." Christ, then, is the 
great Common Denominator, for he is acceptable to 
all, and our missionaries make disciples — Christians — 
by the thousands every year from these great heathen 
religious bodies. Let the numerators stand as before, 
but let Christ be the Common Denominator, as in 
the second line of the diagram. Now add: Twenty 
Christians plus 20 Christians plus 20 Christians plus 
20 Christians plus 20 Christians equals 100 what? 
"Christians.'' Why, certainly. "And a little child 
shall lead them." Some of you older people kindly 
sit up and take notice. Ah ! excuse me, I see you are 
doing so. Thanks. All the young people believe, and 
rightly, that all of God's people ought to be one. Now 
let us get closer home and add some of the great 
common fractions of God's people. Let us select as 
an experiment some of the larger and more influential 
bodies ol the followers of Christ; say, the Catholics, 
Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists. 
Everybody admits and admires the steadfast purpose 
of these great religious bodies to serve the Lord. 
They ought to be one people — added — united. Let us 
add them together. They are common fractions with 
varying denominators, like those of the heathen re- 
ligions in the first and second lines of the diagram: 
Twenty Catholics plus 20 Lutherans plus 20 Presby- 
terians plus 20 Baptists plus 20 Methodists equals 100 
what? Why silent? "Can not tell." W T ell, beloved, 



88 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

neither can God nor the angels tell. We all want to 
be one in Christ, but we ourselves have interposed an 
obstacle which even our good Father in heaven can 
not overcome in his desire to unite us into one. The 
carrying denominator is the trouble. Can we select 
any orie of the denominators in the third line of the 
diagram? No, that would not be acceptable to any of 
the other four religious fractions. What, then, would 
be an acceptable common denominator? They all be- 
lieve in Christ? Why, certainly. They will all accept 
him. Now leave the numerators the same, and sub- 
stitute Christ as the great Common Denominator, and 
add : Twenty Christians plus 20 Christians plus 20 
Christians plus 20 Christians plus 20 Christians equals 
100 what? "Christians." Why, certainly. And what 
is true of these five representative religious fractions 
is just as true of all others who love the Lord. Faith 
in Jesus Christ without any mental reservation will 
solve the problem of Christian unity. Lack of faith 
in the divinity of Jesus Christ is the basis of all di- 
vision among his people. The great brotherhood in 
Christ which I have the honor to represent here to- 
day has sometimes been mistakenly but honestly ac- 
cused of having plenty of head religion, but no heart 
religion. This is a flattering credit to our brains, but 
a heavy debit against our hearts. But let us see : I 
would not rob them of any of their heart religion, 
but I would, if I could, get more healthy action on 
their brains. They tell us that Jesus Christ was the 
greatest orator that evei addressed men, but they do 
not believe that he commanded the necessary vocab- ' 
ulary to name his church; that he was the greatest 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 89 

philosopher, teacher and normalite that ever resided 
on this planet, but they do not believe that he knew 
enough to leave behind the things the church is to 
teach till he comes again ; that he was the greatest 
organizer the world has ever known, but they do not 
believe he knew enough to organize his church, nor to 
name the steps of induction into it ; that he was the 
greatest lawgiver the world has ever known, but they 
do not believe he was equal to giving the law for the 
government of his own church till the day of judg- 
ment. Therefore finite, not infinite ; fallible, not in- 
fallible ; human, not divine. 

As a people we believe with "all the heart" — and 
without any mental reservation — that Jesus Christ is 
the Son of God, and whoever believes this believes 
that Jesus Christ knew enough to name his own 
church; that he knew, as the great Master of masters, 
what to instruct his church to teach till he comes ; 
that he knew how to organize his people, and write 
the law of admission to membership, and that he 
knew the laws best adapted to their government, 
spiritual development and power. In short, whoever 
believes with all the heart, and without mental reser- 
vation, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, believes 
all the rest — all that is essential to salvation. Breth- 
ren, we make no boast of superior brain power, but 
there will be organized in this tent a church with 
"heart religion," based on an undivided and unre- 
served faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and striv- 
ing for the unity of God's people, "in Christ," and 
for the redemption of sinners through faith in and 
obedience to Christ. As an embassador of Christ, I 

(4) 



90 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

have the honor to extend to you his invitation to 
come and confess his holy name; and if you have 
served in the undenominational body of Christ else- 
where, we bid you line up with this new company of 
worshipers forming here ; and if you have served 
the Lord to the best of your knowledge and ability,, 
denominationally, and you feel that your better and 
best service can be rendered here, we bid you come on 
your faith in Christ, and upon obedience to his com- 
mands and ordinances. Our Lord's last, sweetest, 
holiest prayer, "that they may be one in us," will 
finally be answered, and divisions will disappear. 
Will you, by your action this moment, help to answer 
that prayer? God help you. 










Geo. Watson Hemry, A.M. 



92 



GEO. WATSON HEMRY, A.M. 

The minister of the First Christian Church, South 
Bend, Ind., who bears the above name, was born near 
McComb, Hancock Co., O. His boyhood and early 
youth were spent on his father's farm and in the dis- 
trict and village schools. His father was a minister 
of the gospel, having been instrumental in the organ- 
ization of a number of congregations of the disciples 
of Christ in that part of Ohio. At the age of seven- 
teen the subject of this sketch obeyed the gospel, be- 
ing baptized by Evangelist M. L. Blaney, and imme- 
diately began preparation for the ministry. He spent 
three years at Angola, Ind., graduating in the class- 
ical course of the Tri-State College in June, 1896, re- 
ceiving the degree of A.B. For two years he was 
pastor of the Christian Church of Ashley, Ind., 
closing his work there in August, 1898. For the 
three months following he rilled the pulpit of Chas. 
S. Medbury, the Angola pastor, while that brother 
was acting as chaplain in the Spanish-American War. 
He then took charge of the First Christian Church 
at Warsaw, Ind., which pastorate he held until August, 
1902. During that period he studied two quarters in 
the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. 
After resigning at Warsaw he spent a brief time in 
Kentucky University, Lexington, Ky., whence he was 
called to take charge of the West Street Christian 
Church, Tipton, Ind. During the three years of his 
work with this church he studied two full years at 
Butler College, taking both the degree of A.B. and 

A.M. He secured the subscriptions for the first 

93 



94 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

twelve thousand dollars for the new church at Tipton, 
and when he resigned, the plans for the new building 
were definitely under way. Since August, 1906, Mr. 
Hemry has been pastor of the First Christian Church 
at South Bend, Ind. He has developed a thorough 
and active organization of the forces of the church, 
has added largely to the numbers of the congrega- 
tion, and has completed a new church at a cost of 
nearly fifty thousand dollars. This building is one of 
the most commodious and attractive buildings among 
the Christian Churches of Indiana. Mr. Hemry has 
always been active in the co-operative enterprises of 
the church, serving frequently as president of the 
various conventions, both State and district. In his 
own city he is aggressive in all campaigns for civic 
righteousness, and participates in all interchurch ac- 
tivities. 



SERMON VI. 

"WITH ALL HIS HOUSE;" OR, RELIGIOUS 
UNITY IN THE HOME. 

(Josh. 24:15; Acts 10:2; 16:34; 18:8.) 

George Watson Hemry, A.M. 

Upon this subject, as upon all life's issues, the 
Bible has a very plain and positive message. Con- 
ditions, met with daily in modern life, declare that 
the message is needed. No community is an ex- 
ception. In all centers of life one may say, "As I 
passed by" I beheld the altars of your homes fallen 
and the sound of worship displaced by notes of dis- 
cord. The preacher of Christ's gospel would be 
traitor to the Master did he fail to earnestly voice 
this message. If it seems a rebuke for duty neglected, 
remember that is the rebuke of Christ's own spirit — 
a rebuke in blessings ended. It is not only a rebuke 
for unrighted wrongs, it is a vision of a "more ex- 
cellent way." 

I. How the Bible Exalts the Home. There is no 
better basis from which to proceed than the exalta- 
tion which the Bible gives to the home. The Bible, 
in this respect, is unrivaled, yes, even unapproached, 
in all ancient literature. Even those examples of 
modern literature which crown the home with a halo 
of glory, draw from the Bible the measure of their 
song. In Rebekah and Rachel and Ruth and Hannah 

95 



96 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and, holiest of all, Mary of Nazareth, with Eunice 
and many New Testament characters, the world still 
finds the best ideals of womanhood and motherhood. 
And in such men as Joseph and Moses and Samuel 
and Daniel and John and Paul is seen that brave and 
holy manhood, the finished product of the faithful 
home. The homes over which those queenly women 
reigned and out from which those uncrowned princes 
came, though in some cases only nomadic tents, are 
yet history's first examples of the sacred family circle. 
At the dawning of the Christian era, the faithful 
Jewish home was privileged of God to be the training- 
school of the eloquent harbinger and of the Christ 
himself, and, touched and transformed by the spirit 
of that Christ, the Christian home, of whatever 
nationality, has become the ideal of to-day. In such 
homes the poet's words are exemplified : 

"Home's not merely four square walls, 
Though with pictures hung and gilded; 
Home is where affection calls, 

Filled with charms the heart hath builded. 

"Home's not merely roof and room — 
Needs it something to endear it ; 
Home is where the heart can bloom, 

Where there's some kind word to cheer it." 

Shakespeare makes one of his characters disparage 
the home as the place "where small experience grows," 
and as the place where only "homely wit" is devel- 
oped. But this is rather a reflection of some of the 
disappointing homes he had known than of real truth. 

The Bible everywhere sets the home in the first 
seat of honor — it is divine in its origin, its character 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 97 

and its mission. It does not attempt to conceal the 
fact that humanity, with grievous frequency, fails 
to honor the divine in the home. It seeks to overcome 
this, and to give the home its rightful place as the 
source of the best things in life. The home is the 
social unit — the divinely chosen first school of re- 
ligion, or patriotism and social culture. Listen to two 
statements, one from the Old, the other from the New 
Testament: (i) "Therefore shall ye lay up these my 
words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them 
for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as front- 
lets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your 
children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine 
house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou 
liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt 
write them [for mottoes] upon the door-posts of 
thine house, and upon thy gates" (Deut. 1 1 : 18-20). 
(2) "And ye fathers, provoke not your children to 
wrath : but bring them up in the nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). These two passages, 
representing the whole scope of Bible teaching, make 
the home the school of spiritual and moral life. 

Where the Bible has gone and has been obediently 
received, it has exalted the home to that high position, 
and has, of course, as a result, lifted up the people; 
but where it has not gone or has not been obediently 
received, the home has descended to a mere lodging, 
an exponent of the baser elements of human life. 
Missionaries have ever found in the presence of their 
own home life among the heathen a force quite as 
potent as their spoken message. The Christian set- 
tlement in the slums has proved to be the very haven 



98 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

of God. We need to exalt and exemplify, in actual 
practice, the Bible doctrine of the home. Deed is 
more potent than creed, and the godly home, where 
the Sun of righteousness shines not only in, but out, 
will always be one of God's best allies. We need to 
make more of the home. Something is needed to 
make people stay at home more, except from church 
— on this they need no urging. 

II. The Unity of the Home Religiously. There 
is a grave significance in the Bible phrase "all his 
house." It signifies religious unity in the home. 
Joshua made declaration that he and "his house" 
were determined to serve Jehovah. Of Cornelius it is 
said (Acts 10:2) that he "feared God with all his 
house." Of the jailer it is written (Acts 16:34) 
that after his baptism he set food before Paul and 
Silas, and "rejoiced, believing in God with all his 
house." Of the gospel's victories in Corinth it is 
written that "Crispus, the chief ruler of the syna- 
gogue, believed on the Lord with all his house" (Acts 
18:8). Let us study these references and try to get 
their facts. 

First, it is evident that with these men were con- 
verted their servants, their wives and the children who 
were old enough to receive the gospel. Christianity 
was not embraced by one out of a family, but by all. 
These men, in making their religious decisions, did 
not forget or neglect their households : wife and child 
and servant must alike be partakers of the great sal- 
vation. We can not, by our best imagination, picture 
the new and happy life in those households, when all 
hearts were united in the faith that is in Christ, but 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 99 

it was a new and happy life nevertheless. A notable 
fact is that in all these cases the men led their families 
in embracing the Christian faith. It is Cornelius and 
household, the jailer and his house, Crispus and his 
house ; not Cornelius' wife and children, with the hus- 
band and father still remaining in the world, as is so 
often true nowadays. The apostle, in giving his ex- 
hortation for the Christian training of children, writes, 
"Ye fathers, bring your children up in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord." A preacher would 
have to make a more or less careful selection to say 
that to-day. Quite often he would have to say, "Ye 
mothers, bring your children up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord," and your husbands — well, 
do the best you can with them. But it is not right 
that this should be so. No husband and father has a 
right to neglect the Christian culture of his children. 
The duty of the father is not finished when food and 
raiment and shelter have been provided. The crying 
need of the present generation is for the fathers to 
take their rightful place as Christian exemplars and 
teachers in the home. They should be priests of their 
families as well as patriarchs. I am glad that many 
are no longer content to have the religion of the 
family all in the wife's name, not content to be broth- 
ers-in-law to the church, when they can come into the 
fullness of their inheritance. These broken families 
are a sorrow to the great King and a menace to the 
spiritual well-being of the child-lives they possess. 
Two types of division exist. The first is where hus- 
band or wife is a Christian and the other is of the 
world. This is a very sad condition, but there is one 



100 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

relieving feature about it. The way of duty is. plain. 
It is the duty of the Christian portion of the home to 
win the other part. The task may be arduous and 
the waiting-time long, but if there be real faithful- 
ness in the Christian member, victory will be certain. 
Instead, then, of the Christian wife or husband being 
less faithful because life's companion is of the world, 
he or she should only be more in earnest, as the 
Scriptures say, by their "godly walk and conversation 
to win the unbelieving." 

' Another type of division is where the members of 
the home are members of different religious bodies. 
The various Protestant reformations gave us denomi- 
nations, with their attendant perplexities. This is 
often most difficult of adjustment, yet adjusted it 
ought to be, for divided interests will be certain to 
mar the religious life of the home. I do not attempt 
to say what must be done in each case ; I only state 
some things which will be helpful in all instances. 
First, there should be in every case the utmost respect 
and consideration for each other's religious views. 
Let no unkind words or scornful reflections be in- 
dulged in. Second, let there be active co-operation 
in all religious matters where there is agreement. In 
many cases, if this is done, you will be surprised at 
the many respects in which you have hearty agree- 
ment. Third, let there be candid, honest, kindly con- 
versation and even discussions of religious differences. 
There is something wrong with somebody's religious 
condition when differences can not be discussed in a 
kindly spirit. Fourth, read the Bible together, and 
follow where it leads. A careful, candid searching of 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 101 

the Scriptures on disputed questions will usually re- 
sult in showing so plainly where truth is that the one 
in error will find it easy to change. Let the search 
be for truth rather than victory. Seize on the great 
unsectarian truths of the gospel, and follow them 
rather than the standard truths of any sect. Magnify 
agreements and minify differences, yet do not take 
steps where not led of the truth. What is not of faith 
is sin ; to pretend, by submitting to certain religious 
customs and practices, that you believe in their Scrip- 
turalness when you do not, is hypocritical. Walk ac- 
cording to all the light you have, and then seek for 
more. I firmly believe that by the above method you 
will be led into the unity of the faith of the Son of 
God. 

III. The Benefits of Such Unity. Usually these 
religious differences in the home result badly on the 
lives of the children. I knew of a boy whose mother 
was a Seventh-day Adventist, and his father was not 
very religious in any respect ; his father made him 
work on Saturday and his mother made him work on 
Sunday. The result was that he had no day of rest, 
and religion came to mean at least very hard work 
to him. When he grew up he was quite indifferent 
on religious matters — a natural result of the deplor- 
able circumstances amid which he was reared. 

On the other hand, inestimable benefits will accrue 
to all members of families where religious unity pre- 
vails. First, the fellowship in the great visions of 
faith and the great truths of the Christian life is 
of vast benefit. Communing together on the great 
themes of the gospel would be a very strange sort 



102 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

of enjoyment to some homes, but to those that have 
had the experience it is an unpurchasable blessing. I 
can conceive of nothing more appropriate nor more 
necessary to a home than that parents should be united 
in the great truths and experiences of the Christian 
life. 

A second blessing will be the molding power of 
the united religious sentiments on the lives of the 
young. When they come to know what great truths 
have made their parents worthy of their love, they 
will seek by these same truths to become worthy them- 
selves of love and honor from others. It is an un- 
questioned fact that the great religious heroes of his- 
tory have drawn the heroic spirit of their lives from 
homes of faith. Reading the brief sketches of the 
life-work of Timothy, you wonder whence hath this 
young man such combination of gentleness and purity 
and of manly courage. Paul has given two brief 
statements that tell the story : the faith that was evi- 
dent in Timothy dwelt first in his grandmother Lois, 
and his mother Eunice, "and from a child he had 
known the holy scriptures." Because of this he could 
be an example among believers and could endure 
hardness as a good soldier. 

The great Livingstone had an inscription placed 
on the tomb of his parents in which he thanked God 
for "poor and pious parents." Had he had any other 
than pious parents, think you the story of Livingstone 
in Africa would have been as it is? Would he have 
confronted fierce lions, savage people, dark, impen- 
etrable forests, parched deserts and deathful fevers? 
When his way seemed blocked by difficulties he would 



THE IX DIANA PULPIT _ 103 

not have written home, "I am ready to go anywhere, 
provided it is forward." Xor would he at last have 
been found in death kneeling in prayer for Africa. 

John G. Paton, the hero of the New Hebrides, 
grew up in a home where the family altar was never 
suffered to crumble, nor the incense of prayer to be 
extinguished. His parents were of the most pious 
type. It was the faith which was a part of his body 
that enabled him to stand, unflinching, surrounded by 
hungry cannibals ; to brave sickness and danger and 
death itself that the isles of the sea might know the 
Lord. 

Walter Scott and Alexander Campbell, who belong 
to our own history, were reared in homes whose very 
atmosphere was that of worship. As a result they 
were God's noblemen, full of faith and the Holy 
Spirit. Xo fair-minded person can read the biography 
of either Scott or Campbell and fail to be impressed 
with their spirituality and to be made to long for their 
close walk with God. 

Take an example from the heroes of our nation — 
the noble Garfield. Xo man in all the annals of our 
country ever was more true to the teachings of Christ, 
through a long political career, than Garfield. The 
coming of this great character to the chieftainship of 
the nation was like the presence of the Lord in a time 
of trouble, for the Spirit of God was with him at 
every step and lent him his greatness. Taking a sun- 
set walk with a friend, along the Potomac, he de- 
clared that the instruction received from his mother 
and the prayers she taught him as a child were his 
chief source of strength in the trials of his great 



104 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

office. Many other examples of like kind could be 
cited from the great realms of philanthropy, literature 
and the industries, but those given must suffice. 

We are told that the best violins come from a cer- 
tain town in Italy situated near the seashore. Their 
excellence is due not alone to the skillful workman- 
ship lavished upon them, nor yet to the select material 
of which they are made — these are elements, but do 
not tell the whole story. After being completed, it is 
said, these violins are kept for years where they listen 
constantly to the voice of the sea — its mighty roar, 
its laughter, its mournful sobs ; so when these violins 
are played they tell what they have heard — the roar 
and sob of the sea that crept into their very fiber. 
So it is with grand characters that have blessed the 
world ; they move it with power or they soothe it with 
gentle voice, because they have drawn from the vast 
deep of God's thought and love. 

The men of the world knew that Peter and John 
and their associate disciples had been with Jesus ; and 
as truly does the world know to-day those who dwell 
in the secret place of the Most High. India, China, 
Africa, Japan and the isles of the sea knew that Carey 
and Judson, Moffat and Livingstone, Morrison and 
Garst, Paton and Hunt were from the presence-place 
of Jehovah. And the world will never cease to have 
such heroic lives unless it be robbed of its homes 
where there is unity in the great fundamentals of 
Christian faith. I hope I shall be understood to speak 
in all seriousness when I say that young people about 
to establish homes should give this their most careful 
consideration. It is not enough that you be congenial 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 105 

in things merely worldly ; you ought to be united in 
religious faith. 

I remember a very intelligent, earnest young man, 
who wedded a lovely bride. The first evening in their 
new home he said, "Well, we must begin right," and 
so opened the old Book, read a lesson, and together 
they knelt in prayer — a living picture of the "beauty 
of holiness." He soon became a faithful officer in the 
church and an honored man in his community, and 
had a modest home, unsurpassed for home-felt joys. 
That man who was so close to the heart of the com- 
mon people, the poet Burns, in ''The Cotter's Saturday 
Night," has given us a glimpse into an humble home 
that was filled with the holy warmth of God's pres- 
ence: 

"The priest-like father reads the sacred page — 

How Abram was the friend of God on high ; 
Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage 

With Amalek's ungracious progeny; 
Or how the royal bard did groaning lie 

Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire ; 
Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry; 

Or rapt Isaiah's wild seraphic fire ; 

Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. 

"Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme — 

How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed; 
How He who bore in heaven the second name, 

Had not on earth whereon to lay his head; 
How his first followers and servants sped; 

The precepts sage they wrote to many a land ; 
How he, who lone in Patmos banished, 

Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand, 

And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by Heaven's^ 
command. • 



106 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

"Then, kneeling down, to heaven's eternal King, 

The saint, the father, and the husband prays : 
Hope 'springs exultant on triumphant wing,' 

That thus they all shall meet in future days ; 
There ever bask in uncreated rays, 

No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, 
Together hymning their Creator's praise, 

In such society, yet still more dear ; 

While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere." 

This brief chronicle, from the "short and simple an- 
nals of the poor," gives us a vision of a life the 
mightiest of earth's great ones well might envy. 

Of like kind is the home life portrayed in the two 
exquisite little stanzas called "Grace Before Dinner." 

"O Thou who kindly dost provide 

For everycreature's want, 
We thank thee, God of nature wide, 
For all thy goodness lent. 

"And if it please the heavenly Guide, 
May never worse be sent; 
But, whether granted or denied, 
Lord bless us with content." 

To those who have known such home life this word 
comes across the years like "the touch of a vanished 
hand and the sound of a voice that is still." 

Brethren, friends, Christians, build again the altars 
of God that are fallen down ; kindle again the incense 
fire of prayer; tune the sacred lyre of morning and 
evening praise ; blow the dust from your Bibles, and 
let the sacred page be read ; arouse yourselves from 
languor and torpor, and let the Lord's Day be trans- 
formed from a day of lazy lounging to a day of real 
rest in activity for the Lord. 



ROBERT N. SIMPSON. 

Born in Bourbon County, Ky., Jan. 10, 1875. His 
parents were John and Anna Hall Simpson. His 
father was born in Prince Edward Island, and was 
a preacher of the church of Christ. At the age of 
fourteen Robert entered Kentucky University, and 
there pursued his studies until 1896. For six years 
he worked at a bill-clerk desk in Lexington. Aug. 
19, 1899, he was married to Elizabeth Stevens, of 
Lexington. In 1902 he matriculated in the College of 
the Bible to prepare for the ministry, and graduated 
in 1905. That year he became the minister of his 
home church, the Chestnut Street Church, of which 
Brothers McGarvey and Grubbs were members. He 
spent four years with this splendid church and did a 
great work. In 1909 he accepted the work of the 
First Church at New Albany, Ind. He is having a 
prosperous work with this church. 



107 



SERMON VII. 

MY MASTER'S CROSS AND MINE. 
Robert N. Simpson. 

Among the many ancient traditions of the cross 
there is an old legend that in an early century some 
workmen, under the direction of the empress Helena, 
unearthed the three crosses upon which the Saviour 
and the two robbers were crucified. There was no 
faded, yellowed, age-stained inscription in Latin and 
Greek and Hebrew nailed above the cross-beam to 
indicate which was the cross of the Redeemer, but 
each was alike worm-eaten and encrusted with earth. 
So they were borne upon the shoulders of the work- 
men to the home of an invalid woman whose char- 
acter was noted for its saintliness. When the first 
cross was brought before her, she became violently 
insane ; when the second was shown to her, she was 
thrown into convulsions and the strength of six men 
required to control her ; but the third cross healed her 
of the infirmities of many years, and the verdict of the 
empress was, "This is the cross of my Lord." 

What a meaningless tradition it is. Who knows 
what became of those three crosses after they had 
served the will of the rabble and the Roman Govern- 
ment? They might have been used to replenish the 
camp-fires of robbers or repair the wall of a sheep- 
fold. Jesus Christ never cared what became of the 

109 



110 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

cross upon which he died, but what should become of 
the world for which he died. 

In the quest of a cross of salvation three spurious 
crosses have been foisted upon the world. 

There is the cross that art has created. The blood- 
stains upon it have been painted into crimson flowers 
twined about a cruciform trellis, the rough splinters 
have been planed down, and it has been veneered with 
gold. I would not see lessened those beautiful crosses 
of rubies and diamonds and old gold pendent from 
jeweled necklaces upon the breasts of women; I would 
rather see multiplied than decreased those cruciform 
marbles at the graves of our dead; I would rather 
crosses were added to* our church spires than taken 
from them ; I am grateful with my fellows for those 
sublime canvases and splendid oratorios that have 
led us back to Calvary. But the cross of my salvation 
is not a beautiful thing that art has made to be 
covered with idolatrous kisses. Part of the world is 
content to bow at such a cross. There are men whose 
knees are calloused from their daily worship of mam- 
mon who are content to bow before a gilded cross at 
the summit of altar-stairs, and think that they are 
Christian men because a gilded cross awakens agree- 
able emotions within their breasts. There are women 
who have never known a twinge of self-denial who 
are content to caress a golden cross at the end of a 
rosary and kiss its imprint upon the costly cover of 
a prayer-book, and think they are Christian women 
because a jeweled or a pictured cross evokes their 
tears. There are Protestants who break the loaf of 
holy communion with hands kept stained by greed 



THE INDIANA PULPIT HI 

and lust, and lift the cup of the sacred feast to lips 
kept seared by bitter and blasphemous and unclean 
speech, and think they are Christian because they are 
aroused to a half -hour's serious meditation by the 
symbols of the death of Jesus. But the cross of a 
man's salvation is not a cross that merely moves him 
to tears or a half -hour's serious reflection — a cross 
smoothed down, glossed over, washed of blood-stains, 
made of marble or jewels or gold to be idolatrously 
kissed and caressed. 

There is the cross hewn out by human sorrow and 
disappointment where human hopes are crucified. 
There is the "Via Dolorosa" where every day many 
pure-hearted men and women are pursued by the rab- 
ble of gossips bent on crucifixion. There is the hill 
called Calvary, built up of gravestones and broken 
altar-vows and the thoughtlessness of prodigal sons 
and daughters. Part of the world thinks this is the 
cross of redemption, and that they who suffer such 
things shall be spared the suffering foretold for an- 
other world. There is the cross of distrust laid un- 
justly upon the shoulders of many men and women 
in public and private life, but that cross can not save 
a man or woman martyred upon it. It is not bending 
over the wash-tub and the hot stove that makes many 
a wife bent and aged before her time ; but it is the 
cross she bears in her hunger for something more 
than food and shelter and raiment, in her longing for 
a husband's caresses, or in her heartache over a hus- 
band's unfaithfulness. But no such cross can save a 
woman's soul. It is not the hardship of household 
duties that makes many a mother prematurely gray 



112 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and stooped. The body springs back erect when the 
heart is light. It is the crown of thorns pressed down 
by the thoughtlessness of wayward children; but such 
a cross can not save a mother's soul. Jesus suffered 
a thousand deaths upon the cross of disappointment 
before he ever went to Calvary. He was disappointed 
in the nine lepers who walked away with healed bodies 
and never once turned back to thank him for making 
their rotted flesh clean. "Were there not ten cleansed ? 
where are the nine ? were there none found that turned 
to give glory to God save this stranger?" How his 
heart ached over Jerusalem that he loved even with 
the blood-stains of the prophets upon her skirts. 
" Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gath- 
ered thy children together even as a hen gathereth 
her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Be- 
hold, your house is left unto you desolate." 

No one can ever know the suffering of Jesus 
when, on the night in the upper room, he looked into 
the faces of those disciples whom he had chosen out 
of the city's multitudes, and said, "One of you shall 
betray me." But Jesus never pointed to that cross of 
suffering as the cross that would lift him up, and it is 
not the cross that will lift you up. Many worship at 
its base and live in its shadow, and talk more about 
their cross of disappointment and trial than they talk 
about Christ's cross. Many give their cross of human 
anguish the pre-eminence. It is not the cross of re- 
demption. Strap it to your shoulders, and it will 
weight you to the earth ; it will crush out sympathy 
and tenderness and noble impulse ; it will make you 
hardened and bitter and rebellious. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 113 

Some think that the cross of martyrdom is a cross 
of redemption for the soul. Jim Bludso, a river pilot, 
burned to death at his wheel while he tried to save 
the lives of those entrusted to him by piloting the boat 
to a place of safety. A prominent statesman became 
his eulogist, and said that "God would not be too 
hard on a man who died for men." Charlotte Corday 
plunged her sheath-knife into the breast of the tyrant 
Marat, and Carlyle became her eulogist. But could 
Hay build a cross of salvation for Jim Bludso out of 
the charred timbers of a pilot-house? Could Carlyle 
build a cross of salvation for Charlotte Corday out 
of the bars of her prison-cell and the blood-stained 
timbers of the guillotine? 

I. There are tzvo crosses in my salvation — my 
Master's cross and mine. "Far be it from me to glory 
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through 
whom the world has been crucified unto me and I 
unto the world" (Gal. 6: 14). "Now in Christ Jesus 
ye that once were far off are made nigh through the 
blood of Christ" (Eph. 2: 13). "In whom we have 
our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of 
our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" 
(Eph. 1:7). 

Why should any man listen for a strange sound 
to add to the mystery of conversion? Why look for 
any strange vision to add to its wonders? Pentecost 
had its strange sights and sounds, but that was not the 
greatest mystery of Pentecost. I might visit a paper- 
mill and hear there a strange sound in the peculiar 
stroke of an engine; I might see strange sights in 
a unique mechanism, a wonderful invention, ma- 



114 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

chinery I have never seen before. But the strange 
sound I hear, the new machinery I see, are not the 
mysteries that claim my attention. The mystery is 
that a pile of rags picked up from amid the refuse of 
a city's dump can be made into clean, white paper to 
record the sayings of men. The mystery is that the 
outcast thing can become the useful, welcome, indis- 
pensable thing. And the real mystery of Pentecost 
was not the sound of a storm, yet no storm; not the 
vision of tongues as of fire ; but the mystery of Pente- 
cost was that men who had crucified Jesus could be 
redeemed ; men who had gotten as far from God as 
men could get in slaying his Son could be brought 
nigh through the blood of him they had slain. 

Is it any wonder that Paul speaks of "the mystery 
of his will" and the "mystery of godliness"? The 
doctrine of the atonement has been to the front in the 
discussions of theologians. Theory after theory has 
been woven and spread before the church h'ke so many 
rival fabrics exhibited at a county fair. There was 
the redemptive theory that in the cross of Jesus God 
paid to him who held us in bondage a price sufficient 
to satisfy his fiendish soul and make him set us free. 
There was the theory that the cross of Jesus was a 
payment to satisfy a debt that the world owed to 
God. There was the governmental theory, that the 
cross of Jesus enabled God to be just while extending 
mercy to the sinful. There was the theory that the 
cross was erected to show to men the exceeding sin- 
fulness of sin and the wonderful love of God, and set 
right a world that had gotten a false conception of 
sin and a false conception of God. You may not think 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 115 

the cross of your Lord as a medium of exchange by 
which Satan got blood enough and of the kind to sat- 
isfy his hellish hunger, and God received souls enough 
to satisfy his divine longing. You may have some 
entirely different theory from the ones enumerated. 
It will always be a mooted question, "while we see as 
in a glass darkly." We may wonder and theorize 
about our Master's cross, but we do not have to the- 
orize about our cross. It has to be set up and the flesh 
crucified with the passions and lusts thereof. 

"And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified 
the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof" 
(Gal. 5:24). "For if we have become united with 
him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in 
the likeness of his resurrection ; knowing this, that 
our old man was crucified with him, that the body of 
sin might be done away, that so we should no longer 
be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified 
from sin" (Rom. 6:5-7). 

There could not be a risen Christ before Jesus 
died, nor can there be a risen life for you and me 
before a self is slain ; and so before Pilate ordered a 
cross to be made for Jesus to die upon, Jesus ordered 
a cross for his followers. "If any man would come 
after me, let him deny himself,. and take up his cross, 
and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). "And he that taketh 
not his cross and folio weth after me, is not worthy 
of me" (Matt. 10:38). 

The Lord's table every Lord's Day challenges us 
to this self-crucifixion. The grain made into the loaf 
of the sacred feast might have grown and ripened and 
fallen ungarnered in the field ; it might have been 



116 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

spared from the millstones ; it might have escaped the 
bird's quest for food or the dark prison-house of the 
furrow. But through its crucifixion on the millstones, 
its self-humiliation, the destruction of its individuality, 
it has come into the highest place of honor that grain 
can reach in representing the very body of the Re- 
deemer and touched by the lips of a Saviour's wor- 
shipers. The grapes made into the wine of holy com- 
munion might have ripened on the vines ungarnered 
and been spared from the wine-press. They might 
have hidden behind the bars of the trellis and escaped 
the sharp eyes of the birds and the quest of men; but 
they would have become dried, shriveled, tasteless 
things, and been revealed in all their withered ugliness 
when the leaves of the vine had fallen. But, crushed, 
crucified as it were, in the wine-press, they reach the 
highest place of honor that fruit can occupy in repre- 
senting the very blood of a Redeemer. The metal 
plates and trays and fragile glasses or silver goblets 
used in the sacred feast came by way of the fire ; 
the communion table came by way of the saw and 
plane and woodcarver's chisel ; the cloth that covers 
it all came by way of the loom that presses and twists 
and crushes threads into fabrics. And from these 
simple things we can get the lesson emphasized that is 
taught in every book of the New Testament. We 
must crucify self; we must let the splintered cross be 
set up in the midst of our daily life, and crucify the 
flesh with the passions and lusts thereof. 

II. My Master's cross was the painful process by 
which he entered into a higher life, and that is zvhat 
my cross is for me. 



THE IX D I AX A PULPIT 117 

Before the cross he was Jesus of Nazareth; after 
the cross he was the Man of the ages. Before the 
cross he was Teacher, Rabbi, Master ; after the cross 
he was Saviour, Redeemer, Lord. That marvelous 
day on the way to Emmaus Jesus said to Cleopas and 
his companion, ''Behooved it not the Christ to suffer 
these things, and to enter into his glory?" The un- 
known writer of the wonderful Epistle to the Hebrews 
said, 'Tor it became him for whom are all things, and 
through whom are all things, in bringing many sons 
unto glory, to make the author of their salvation per- 
fect through sufferings:'' Peter, who saw the blood- 
stains of his Master's cross, who stood struck with 
wonderment inside the sepulchre, and saw the folded 
napkin that had bound his Saviour's brow, who was 
in the company on Olivet when . his Lord ascended, 
said that the Spirit of Christ through the prophets 
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the 
glories that should follow them" (Luke 24:26; Heb. 
2 : 10 ; 1 Pet. 1 : 11 ). 

Do I want my life to be big and broad and happy? 
It is by way of the cross. When Paul crucified self, 
Christ became the tenant of his soul. "It is not I that 
live, but Christ that liveth in me." Day is ending in 
a town by the sea, and a hundred men turn their faces 
homeward. Some of them are pilots and fishermen 
and shipbuilders : others work in the mills and offices 
and stores. Those hundred men are Catholics and 
Protestants and men without faith. Those hundred 
men are partisan Democrats and Republicans and So- 
cialists. A few of them are captains of industry, and 
some of them are unstable, half-hearted workmen, 



118 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

cursed by indecision and enslaved by poverty. Some 
of them are men of princely birth and a few are of 
doubtful parentage. Stand those hundred men in line, 
and you would note at once the marked difference in 
apparel and attitude, and you would say, "Were ever 
a hundred men so different?" Morning dawns on a 
battlefield two years later. The hundred men of the 
seaport town have heard the call of their home land 
for volunteers, and have answered that call. Look at 
them now. These men who once dressed to suit their 
individual tastes are wearing the uniform with the 
same cross-arms and company letter on cap and collar. 
These men who once walked as each pleased keep step 
in their onward march. These men who once sought 
their own pleasure and followed the bent of their own 
wills seek to do the will of their country. It is not 
James Jones that lives in that soldier, but the spirit 
of Patriotism that lives in him, and his life will always 
be bigger for that self-surrender. If he goes back to 
the home town by the sea, when the battle-clouds 
have lifted and war is over, he will be more than 
James Jones the shipbuilder; he will be James Jones 
the patriot. If he gives to his country a man's best 
gift of his heart's blood, his gravestone will herald 
the wider fame of the man who crucifies self for his 
fatherland. 

If in the army of the fatherland it is so essential 
that the spirit of patriotism tenant each heart, how 
essential that in the army of the Lord the Spirit of 
Christ live in each breast. When we can say with 
Paul, "It is not I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in 
me," then we will be possessed with the spirit of 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 119 

servantship and confident hope ; we will give ourselves 
to prayer and self-denial for the kingdom's increase ; 
we will fulfill our ministry. 

Paths that ran side by side in boyhood diverge and 
cross again after many years, and at the crossing we 
stand face to face with a companion of childhood. 
But the face is bloated and veined and purpled by dis- 
sipation, and we say that it is not the man we once 
knew. It is not. The self we knew has been slain, 
and it is not that man that lives, but the spirit of Lust 
that liveth in him. Many a boy goes back home from 
a university where he hears very little about God, the 
same youth in color of hair and eyes, the same young 
fellow in avoirdupois ; but the boy his mother knew 
with his love of right and his faith in God has been 
slain in his Freshman year, and the mother cries out 
from the shadows of her Gethsemane, "It is not my 
boy." A man cast from the pedestal of political pref- 
erment because of his dishonesty walks the floor of 
his office in distress and cries out in his humiliation, 
"It was not I, but the spirit of Greed, that possessed 
me." A man imprisoned for the murder of his child 
walks the floor of his cell, treading the wine-press of 
sorrow, and cries out, "It was not I, but the demon 
of Drink, that possessed me." A man who has 
pillaged the life of a young woman, and left it in 
ruin, cries out in his remorse, "It was not I, but the 
devil of Lust, that possessed me." That has been the 
outcry of many a soul trying to answer the indictment 
at the bar of moral judgment. It was the probable 
lamentation of Saul when his sins passed before him 
in spectral review that night of his return from the. 



120 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

witch of Endor's hovel. Perhaps it was the cry of 
David when Nathan's words burned their way into 
his soul. 

Save, save the better self. Do not let it be cruci- 
fied. Let no crowd of tempters bent on its crucifixion, 
neither hell's high priests nor its commonest rabble, 
fasten the cross upon your higher self. But let the 
lower self be crucified, let the flesh be slain with the 
affections and lusts, and the spirit of Christ become 
the indweller of your soul. 

Don't you love the story of that heroic soldier that 
is written in the war chronicles of some nation? — -the 
story of a man severely wounded on the battlefield 
who was carried to the hospital tent, and when the 
surgeon began to probe into his breast for the hidden 
bullet, the brave fellow said, "Probe deeper, and you 
will find the emperor." Can we so slay self and be 
indwelt by the Spirit of our King that when men 
pierce us with the probe of criticism or slander we 
can say with tempers controlled, "Probe deeper, and 
you will find the Christ"? When temptation probes 
with its most sharpened weapon, when Sorrow pierces 
through, can we say, "Probe deeper, and you will find 
my King"? 




Edward Richard Edwards. 



122 



EDWARD RICHARD EDWARDS. 

Was born in New York City on March 17, 1866. 
His parents came to America from Wales. The re- 
ligions zeal and fervor of the Welsh people is per- 
haps in some measure accountable for the evangelistic 
passion and love of preaching in the subject of this 
sketch. 

Mr. Edwards was educated in the public schools 
of Xew York, and, after completing his course in 
them, took up the pursuit of mechanics, and while thus 
engaged matriculated at the night school in Cooper 
Institute, and completed the course in that institution. 
The next occupation was as manager of a large hard- 
ware and house-furnishing business. In spite of the 
large returns of this latter business, the young man 
still felt the call of God to enter the ministry, and only 
waited the favorable opportunity to take up the studies 
necessary to the vocation. At this time the beloved 
B. B. Tyler was minister of the church where the 
Edwards family held their membership and where our 
subject sat under his ministry. This man of God ap- 
preciated the longing of the young man for the 
preaching of the gospel, and arranged for him to enter 
Kentucky (now Transylvania) University in Lexing- 
ton, Ky. Completing a four years' course at this in- 
stitution and graduating with the class of 1890, our 
subject accepted a call to Brooklyn, N. Y. He had 
been preaching for the church at Dover, Mason 
County, and Mt. Carmel, Fleming Co., Ky., and these 
charges reluctantly surrendered the young man to 
enter a greater field. While in charge in Brooklyn, 

123 



124 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

advantage was taken of the lectures at Union Sem- 
inary. During a ministry of eight years in Syracuse, 
N. Y., a course of sociology was pursued under the 
instruction of Prof. John R. Commons, and continued 
for two years. Coining to Indiana in 1902, in re- 
sponse to the call at Bedford, Mr. Edwards held that 
charge for five years. Under a protest from the con- 
gregation there, a call was accepted to the church at 
Kokomo in 1907, and that pastorate still continues. 
In addition to the steady, persistent educational work 
with his present congregation, this preacher makes a 
practice of holding a series of evangelistic meetings 
for some church once a year, and explains that this 
is necessary because of the Welsh strain in his blood 
that calls for such effort. 

Joseph Bradford Cleaver was the minister of the 
church in New York when our brother, then a lad 
thirteen years of age, made the good confession and 
was baptized into Christ. 

In 1891 Mr. Edwards was united to Miss Lena W. 
Lillard, of Lexington, Ky. Of this union two sons 
were born — Tyler Campbell and Edward — and who 
are now nineteen and seventeen years of age. There 
is no preacher in the Christian Church who more 
deeply loves the position of our brotherhood and who 
urges the plea with a greater love and loyalty. The 
application of the gospel to the social problems of our 
day is ever a favorite theme with this preacher, and 
some of his convictions in that respect will be seen 
from the sermon he has given for publication in this 
volume. 



SERMON VIII. 

THE DEMOCRACY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

E. Richard Edwards. 

Text. — Matt. 23:8-10: "But be not ye called Rabbi: for 
one is your .teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no 
man your father on the earth : for one is your Father, even 
he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters : for one 
is your master, even the Christ." 

By the term ''democracy" in this discourse we are 
not to have in mind political program or a system of 
economics. The word stands for a spirit. In the text 
there is to be found a fine interpretation of this spirit. 
Brotherhood is a fundamental idea in true democracy. 
This ideal has been developed by the Son of God in 
a manner that satisfies beyond all other teachers. The 
theme should possess a profound interest for the man 
or woman who would rightly understand the progress 
of our race, and discover the well-worn pathway over 
which humanity has plodded most patiently and won 
the victories that are worth while. Trace the cause of 
social and political revolutions, and you find it has 
always been the spirit of democracy moving on the 
hearts of the people and giving them a passion for 
justice, liberty and fair-dealing. The dominant note 
of our day, the characteristic tendency, is toward de- 
mocracy. This popular impulse the world over is 
based on a broadening of men's sympathy ; the instinct 
of the common people ; a break with the traditions and 

125 



126 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

conventions that violate a true love of liberty and 
subordinate man to institutions ; and last, but not least, 
the decay of bossism, whether in a political machine 
or an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Absolutism as a system 
of administration in church or state has heard its 
death-knell. The cry that "special privileges" are an 
injustice is heard in no uncertain tone by both king 
and priest. There is a democracy of government, of 
society, of religion. All these interests are being af- 
fected. Changes are advancing so rapidly that we 
have difficulty in keeping abreast of them. The rising 
tide of democracy is visibly and clearly affecting our 
nation in all her complex social activities and ideals. 
Let us briefly touch upon some illustrations outside 
the spiritual sphere, that later we may see more clearly 
the application of the spirit of democracy to Christian 
faith. The very best evidence of the growth of the 
spirit of democracy in the political sphere offers proof, 
first of all, in the rise of the independent citizen and 
the large place he is occupying in legislative affairs, 
and he has become a real menace to the political boss 
and has been throwing political shibboleths into the 
junk-heap. He laughs at the appeal to a partisan 
prejudice, and the label of the man who wants office 
must state his character rather than his party. Inde- 
pendent citizenship now holds the balance of power 
and must be reckoned with seriously. Thinking men 
laugh to scorn the tactics of the old regime, the dema- 
gogue, the stand-patter, and vote on principle in pref- 
erence to party. This is only an indication of that 
deeper stream of protest in the form of democracy 
that will cleanse and reform nolitics and give back to 



. THE INDIANA PULPIT 127 

the people the power and rights that belong to them. 
This means that the people must rule, not a self-ap- 
pointed set of masters. We are selecting leaders, not 
bosses, and the person elected is regarded as a servant 
of the people, not a dictator. 

In educational circles the same spirit of democracy 
is leavening our methods. The people wanted to know 
why our system should be administered for the favor 
of those who will have the advantage of a collegiate 
course, as against instruction that will fit the many 
for the humbler pursuits. The answer is found in 
the introduction of manual training and domestic 
science and commercial courses. Thus, public edu- 
cation is broadening its scope, and widening in its 
application, and considering the many, not the few. 
All classes and all stations must be considered. 

The industrial realm affords still another evidence 
of the resistless growth of the spirit of democracy. 
Trusts and combines are being called to the bar of 
justice, and interrogated. The giant industries have 
discovered that they can no longer assume an inde- 
pendent attitude and defy public sentiment and the 
spirit of fair dealing. There will be a radical change, 
and Government regulation is the coming order, and 
that is democracy. 

Somebody is now ready to inquire why all these 
references to that which seems to have forgotten the 
real theme of this discourse. What has been said is 
simply to prepare us to recognize our old friend de- 
mocracy in religious progress and change. It would 
be surpassing strange to find the spirit to which we 
have referred affecting all issues and all human ac- 



128 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

tivities, and passing by the most vital and fundamental 
issue of all, man's spiritual interests. 

If you search deeply enough, you will find that 
the changing order to which we have referred is really 
the leaven of sound religious convictions whose in- 
spiration is in the life and teaching of the one who 
spoke the words of the text. Absolutism, politically, 
socially and industrially, is taking its place with the 
ghosts and phantoms of the past, and so greatly has 
it affected religious life, that, in religious affairs, it 
is struggling for existence. With those who have 
been controlled by a religious hierarchy the question 
is, How can I reconcile loyalty to the church as the 
final authority, with the democratic spirit? The 
Protestant churches are the children of the democratic 
movement in some measure. The reformers were the 
insurgents of their day in religion. In fact, the things 
we have that are really worth while are the result of 
insurgency in whatever realm it has chosen to work 
or in the reform it has sought to accomplish. In the 
Roman or Anglican Church the spirit of modernism 
is causing much concern, and it will not down. In a 
recent volume entitled "The Spirit of Democracy," 
Lyman Abbott says : "The question whether God's in- 
spiring and counseling presence is universal and brings 
with it a gift of eternal life which is as free to all as 
the air we breathe and the sunshine which vitalizes 
and empowers us, or whether eternal life, bestowed 
by an absentee God, is piped and conduited through 
an appointed hierarchy, from whom alone the laity can 
receive it." That touches the very heart of the 
question. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 129 

A few years since Henry Watterson was crying, 
''Back to the Constitution," and that is exactly the 
need for a large part of the religious world to-day in 
relation to God's world. To that religious body known 
in current literature as "Disciples of Christ" or 
"Christian Church," this agitation is no new thing. In 
examining the history of this religious reformation, 
begun a little over a century ago, the two names, Alex- 
ander and Thomas Campbell, stand prominently as 
leaders. In the light of modern progress it would not 
be amiss to class them as real insurgents. If they 
were living to-day, these men would find a tremendous 
tide of democracy ready to carry their plea to the 
height of popularity. Ignoring the authority vested 
in religious councils or ecclesiastical assemblies ; re- 
pudiating special privileges as the prerogative of the 
so-called clergy; inspired to a close study of the apos- 
tolic church — they seemed to be preparing the way 
for the restoration of the people's rights. It was the 
spirit of the Boston tea party in Colonial times, and 
the plea was the same ; i. e., "Taxation without repre- 
sentation is tyranny." It was a protest against special 
privilege in sacerdotal orders or church authority, and 
a passionate, self-sacrificing labor to restore the dem- 
ocratic conditions that existed in the early church. It 
was a masterly stroke and a godly audacity that in- 
sisted on taking up Christian faith and practice where 
the early church had left off, and restore the authority 
to the people. Combinations in restraint of religious 
freedom are as unjust and culpable as in other affairs. 
Monopoly of religion was infinitely worse than some 
of the monopolies with us at present. Absolutism 



130 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

was assailed and challenged. It was the same spirit 
that has made uneasy in these days the head that wears 
a crown. Why, even China is awakening and has 
established a republic. Mexico is now in the throes 
of a revolution, and we have felt a deep sympathy for 
the insurrectos. The tide of democracy, with resist- 
less power, is touching and cleansing every coast. It 
will, it must, it is, affecting religion and giving back 
to the people their rights before God. 

One of the first things to be discovered in an at- 
tempt to restore the democracy of apostolic faith was 
that the church created her ministry as she had need; 
the ecclesiastics did not create the church. The people 
ruled. Since that time it has been the avowed policy 
of presumptuous religious leaders on their own in- 
itiative or through church councils to dictate legisla- 
tion for the people, and to insist that their formularies 
must be accepted for admission to the kingdom. The 
reason for this interference with the individual con- 
science in spiritual affairs was the claim that the 
action and control of sacerdotal orders would preserve 
the unity of the church. The fact is nothing has 
been more conducive to the destruction of that unity. 
Opinions and deductions were substituted for the 
plainly revealed conditions of salvation in the Scrip- 
tures, and the result among believers was confusion 
worse confounded. We honor and claim all honest 
and effective religious reformers as common property. 
We hail them as the courageous insurgents of their 
day and age. Their monumental achievements in an- 
swering the spirit of a true democracy will abide as 
a rich heritage. From the age in which they nourished 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 131 

to the present, hierarchial orders, with their unwar- 
ranted claims and spectacular adornments, are finding 
it difficult to maintain their assumptions and rule. 
Believers are more and more coming to stand "in the 
liberty wherewith Christ has made them free." God 
intended that all should have free access to his grace 
and none should possess special privileges in the realm 
of Christian faith. The brotherhood and equality of 
all believers before God was and is the glory of our 
faith and the satisfying answer to the passion for the 
same principle in affairs outside of religion. Xo more 
popular, Scriptural and effective position could be 
taken by any religious body, and no message would 
so greatly hearten the people and win them to the 
support of Christian faith, as to insist that the very 
struggles we are witnessing the world over are the 
attempt to establish the Christian principle of brother- 
hood in social relationships. If the claim is here made 
that Christian faith is imbued with the spirit of de- 
mocracy, several things will need to be established for 
supporting the claim. The first argument advanced 
would be that, if we are to have the faith necessary 
for our salvation, it must be universally accessible. 
We must have a right in common to the sources of 
belief, and the way of approach must be open to all 
without distinction of position or delegated powers or 
permission from so-called guardians of the faith. Xo 
special privileges nor private roads to the favor of 
God or the salvation he so freely offers through Christ 
Jesus our Lord. The hierarchy of religious faith is 
the reason and conscience of the individual. The 
source of faith is in the word of God, and the response 



132 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

to its teaching and the obedience to its commands is 
the corroboration that must come from the soul of 
the inquirer, and thus provide "the witness of the 
Spirit with our spirit that we are children of God." 
God has spoken plainly and clearly to man. He would 
have all men saved, and has not indicated that any 
man or set of men outside the apostles have a special 
right to translate his message into human creeds or 
confessions of faith. That position appeals to every 
person who has been conscious of the movement to- 
ward democracy, and is the only position consistent 
with the liberty that has ever more been the passion 
of the race. Christ is the object of faith. His char- 
acter and position and teachings are revealed in the 
word of God. That Word furnishes the testimony 
upon which rests our faith. This being true, all must 
have a right to the testimony. We are to justify our 
faith and practice by what the Lord has spoken. This 
revelation is free to all. There can be no monopoly 
by self-constituted human authority. "Whosoever 
will, let him come and take of the water of life 
freely." That is the broadest possible invitation, and 
binds all to the one source of Christian faith and 
practice and on the same terms. If that is not de- 
mocracy of faith, we have blundered in understanding 
the term. 

The democracy of Christian faith will be realized 
only as we have the highest possible standard or ideal 
for our worship and work. A constitution for the 
government of God's people must anticipate every 
human need and offer a platform not subject to 
change. It must be perfect and permanent, univer- 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 133 

sally applicable and including all classes and condi- 
tions. This at once demands that such charter of 
Christian privilege and practice be divine. No human 
wisdom and power could devise such an instrument, 
and it is a source of congratulation that the infinite 
love and wisdom of God has supplied it. The New 
Testament is the constitution of the church. It has 
anticipated every demand that may arise in man's 
spiritual interest. Though the social order changes 
and demands readjustments of social relationships, 
the divine constitution of the church needs no re- 
vision. So far from having outgrown the gospel, as 
is claimed by some, it is to be doubted whether we 
have seriously tried it in an attempt to solve the 
problem of brotherhood and democracy. If there is 
any doubt concerning the sufficiency of the New Tes- 
tament to answer the questions that are causing a 
social unrest, that doubt will disappear when that 
teaching is applied to the situation. The history of 
the apostolic church clearly reveals the wonderful 
efficiency of the gospel to unite men in a bond of 
brotherhood no difference of class or race or station 
could affect. Right at the beginning of the Christian 
commonwealth the leader of the apostles must be re- 
minded that he should not call that which God had 
cleansed common or unclean. This was necessary 
because Peter would have excluded the Gentiles as 
objects of salvation. To further illustrate the spirit 
of democracy in Christian faith, let us recall the inci- 
dent immediately after the stoning of Stephen. We 
read in Acts 8 : i : "And at that time there was a great 
persecution against the church which was at Jerusa- 



134 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

lem; and they were all scattered abroad through- 
out the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the 
apostles." Could there be a clearer indication of the 
intention of the Lord to establish the rights of all 
believers, and a stronger denial of special privileges, 
than to thus hold the apostles in the city while "they 
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preach- 
ing the word"? 

When Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, was 
converted, let us not forget that he was baptized by 
a humble believer who had not received "holy orders," 
and who would to-day be regarded as not qualified to 
perform that office because he had failed to receive 
his commission from some church dignitary. The 
further query arises as to whether Paul himself would 
now be esteemed an authorized preacher, and be ac- 
corded a place among some of the autocratic clergy 
of the present. This point is here made, not for the 
purpose of assailing the practice of others, but to em- 
phasize the broad and catholic and democratic spirit 
of the early disciples. The introduction of a priestly 
aristocracy and their assumption of special privileges 
is responsible for the lost unity of the church, and has 
called that which God has cleansed common and un- 
clean. When we study the question of sacerdotal 
exclusiveness we must certainly be wondering what 
will become of it all when we stand face to face with 
Him who said, "One is your master, even Christ, and 
all ye are brethren." To-day, as never before, the 
people are demanding that the men elected to political 
office shall be exactly what they were elected to be, 
the representatives and servants of the people. It shall 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 135 

be so in the church. He is greatest who is servant of 
all, and he who poses as authority clothed with special 
privilege, or takes to himself autocratic airs, shall be 
least in the household of God. What a revolution in 
church life there would be if only we would manifest 
the disposition to insist on the equality of all be- 
lievers before God. The sovereignty of Jesus and 
the supremacy of his word are the two pillars that 
must support the superstructure of Christianity. 

To be right here is to be right everywhere. We 
have the United States of America. We must have 
the united churches of Jesus Christ. This latter is 
being discussed as never before, and many are longing 
for the Son of God to rise from his knees and see the 
answer of his prayer as we let the broad, beautiful 
spirit of democracy unite us in Christ and send us 
into the world as brothers, not as competitors. 

The one test, the one grip, the one password, must 
suffice for all. That test is, "What think ye of 
Christ?" The grip is the bond of sympathy and 
brotherly kindness. The password is "Service." 

In many quarters there are claims being made 
that the church is losing her hold upon the people, 
or it is declared that religious work is growing in- 
creasingly difficult. There may be some truth in 
these conclusions. If the statements are true, and 
signs seem to indicate there is some truth in the claim, 
then there is imperative need that we use the utmost 
diligence in promoting the co-operative efforts of the 
churches and meet the enemy with an unbroken and 
undivided front. 

We can not hope for response from the people to 



136 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

our efforts as long as we persist in classifying the 
workers in a way to establish an aristocracy of po- 
sition. If Jesus were to visit America and repeat the 
work he did in preaching and teaching, I am sure 
that he would be saying "the republic of God/' or 
"the democracy of God," instead of "the kingdom of 
God." The latter term was the one the people in the 
days of Christ best understood, for it was under the 
monarchial form of government they lived. 

A million aliens a year are landing on our shores. 
They are vastly different from the colonial settlers, 
both in culture and position. A million of the modern 
immigrants could not found such a nation as this. 
They are poor, cringing, illiterate, half -terrified souls 
whose experience has been that of slaves, and who 
have lived under a despotism of church and state. 
Cowed and embittered by being deprived of a fair op- 
portunity to live like human beings, they are little 
prepared to adjust themselves to our standard of 
liberty. Our hearts go out in sympathy to them, and 
we think in the words of Him who with infinite tender- 
ness called attention to the multitudes "who were as 
sheep having no shepherd." To approach these aliens 
with anything that savors of absolutism and aristoc- 
racy in an appeal for God, is to forfeit all chance for 
a hearing of the message. They are cursed with a 
timidity that was theirs through their exploiting by 
political and religious forces of the Old World. As 
they sense the atmosphere of liberty — America — they 
become drunken with a new feeling of freedom, and 
straightway curse both king and priest. What virgin 
soil for Home Missions, and especially if we carry to 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 137 

them the fine Christian democracy of the gospel! To 
plant the word of God and its practice in their hearts 
on the basis of brotherhood and equality of believers 
before the Almighty. That note free from sacerdotal- 
ism and ecclesiasticism of their former faith should 
do much to destroy their class hatred and defiance of 
all law, both God's and man's. The triple burden 
of political, industrial and religious absolutism and 
slavery has made them to have little respect for the 
institutions we cherish. We must save them, or the 
institutions we revere will continue to be adversely 
affected by their influence. 

The average, intelligent man of to-day is finding 
himself in some measure out of sympathy with ortho- 
dox religion, especially that phrase of it which savors 
of official and partisan practice. On the other hand, 
he does not care to anchor to the so-called liberal re- 
ligious forces, for they have taken away the supreme 
content of evangelical faith. "God in Christ recon- 
ciling the world to himself." The religious instinct 
is the most powerful instinct possessed by man. It 
must, if it appeal to his support at all, have in the 
expression of its faith and practice something more 
than merely human inspiration or wisdom. What 
better could we suggest for universal acceptance than 
the sovereignty of Jesus and the supremacy of his 
word?' To proclaim Jesus as Christ and Lord, and 
to ask that men shall love and trust him and follow 
him and be guided by his teachings, is to meet every 
spiritual need of man. To regard the word of God — ■■ 
the Scriptures — as the one and only rule of faith and 
practice, is the most liberal proposition any soul would 



138 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

demand. That basis would be universal, and would 
result in proving the democracy of Christian faith in 
a way to take its place in the great world movement 
in all other human interests. That pure, simple faith 
of the Christian is the universal heritage of humanity; 
it is a freedom the heart can deeply appreciate, for 
"if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free in- 
deed." The Christian system will unite us in a fel- 
lowship and brotherhood comparable to no other and 
superior to all. Political democracy unites the nation ; 
industrial democracy unites trades ; social democracy 
unites men on a broader basis than fortune and po- 
sition ; religious democracy — Christian faith — unites 
all nations, occupations, classes, in a universal broth- 
erhood. Its supreme dictum is, "One is your Master, 
even Christ, and all ye are brethren." 




James Small. 



«o 



JAMES SMALL. 

James Small is an Irishman. His first work in 
this country was as evangelist of Bartholomew 
County, Ind. He has held some splendid pastorates, 
but his special line is in the evangelistic work. He 
is best loved by those who know him best. He and 
his good wife Mary are highly appreciated and hon- 
ored in their home city, Columbus. He is one of our 
sanest and best evangelists. He reads and keeps 
abreast of the times. His sermons are spiritual. He 
is loyal to the old gospel, but he preaches it in love. 



141 



SERMON IX. 

THE VISION OF THE PURE HEART. 

Evangelist James Small. 

Text. — Matt. 5:8: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for 
they shall see God." 

The Sermon on the Mount makes Jesus unique 
for all time. His reach is higher and deeper and 
broader than the reach of any man that has ever 
lived on earth. He alone measures up to God him- 
self. He was unique as a teacher. Here is a man 
quoting nobody, that never reasons out things, that 
never proved things, that did not base what he said 
on anything previously said by anybody else, but 
stood before them as a "teacher sent from God," who 
saw things with his own eyes and drew water out of 
his own well. 

He was unique in his personality. ' With the scribe 
it was not a matter of who said it, if only it was the 
law. But in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus Christ 
thrusts his personality into the front by saying, "I 
say unto you," as the all-sufficient reason and sanction 
for his teaching. 

In his claim he is unique. He claims for his 
teaching and for himself a first place in the hearts 
and minds of all men and women. He was unwilling 
to be classed among the highest and worthiest of Old 
Testament renown. 

143 



144 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

"Behold, a greater than Jonah is here," "Behold, 
a greater than Solomon is here," he said. He re- 
quested his disciples to "call no man master." He 
makes his teaching the test of loyalty and attachment 
to himself: "If any man will love me, he will keep 
my words." 

Christianity is not based on a book merely, it is 
based on a person. Faith is a unit. Faith in Jesus 
Christ, without any additional faith, is saving faith. 
Jesus is more than his words to the human soul. 

Christianity is not an evolution of thought, it is a 
revelation from an infinite loving heart. 

All truth comes through a person. Neither truth 
nor error has any existence apart from personality. 

Truth is great only in personality. Its power is 
in a person, and the colossal teacher and person of the 
ages is Jesus Christ. He claims to have a familiar 
knowledge of God. He knew the heart of God and 
man. We instinctively feel that his knowledge of 
God was so complete, so sufficient, so familiar, that 
it is at once a true revelation of God's great, good 
heart. 

His revelation has the marks of a reminiscence. 
Jesus, in a word, is the revelation of his Father. 

God will never be any different to men than Jesus 
was. Christ's love is the love of God, his heart is 
the heart of God, his promises are the promises of 
God. 

We believe in all he has promised because we 
believe him to be one with the Father and the Son of, 
God. Mary is praised for sitting at his feet; others 
are condemned for not believing the saving message. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 145 

He claims the right to praise, to save or to con- 
demn. 

It is worth while to study what he has to say about 
life and love and the human heart. 

Well has the poet said : 

"Hushed be the noise and the strife of the schools, 

Volume and sermon, pamphlet and speech, 
The lips of the wise and the prattle of fools. 
Let the Son of man teach. 

"Who hath the key of the future but he 

Who can unravel the knots of the skein? 
We have groaned and have travailed and sought to be free. 
We have travailed in vain. 

"Bewildered, dejected and prone to despair, 
We turn as at first unto him and beseech ; 
Our ears are all open, give heed to our cry. 
O Son of man, teach." 

Jesus has all the crowns worth wearing on earth 
and the only crown worth having in heaven. 

The Text. — The pure in heart shall "see." The 
vision of the pure is the theme of the text — "see" is 
the emphatic word. 

I. The Heart. II. The Vision. III. The Con- 
dition. This is the order of the theme. 

I. The Heart. How shall we approach the subject 
of "the heart"? Shall we approach it in the spirit of 
conflict, or in the spirit of hungry men who need 
bread ? 

Shall we make this Scripture a battlefield or a 
bread-house? When I visited the battlefield of Get- 
tysburg the guide pointed out the place where the 
bloodiest battle was fought, and it was in a wheatfield. 



146 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

We have done the same. Our theological conflicts 
have sometimes destroyed the bread intended for 
hungry souls. We have fought over the wheatfield 
of truth and trampled its grain into the ground. Sup- 
pose we approach the subject, then, in the spirit of 
investigation. 

When we do, we shall find that what we call 
"mind" and "heart" are synonyms in Scripture. They 
are identical in meaning, but different in form (Eph. 
4:23). The heart of the universe is the center of 
the universe. The heart of a tree is the center of the 
tree. So when David said, "I have hid thy word in 
my heart," he meant he had hid them, in the very 
center of his being, the innermost recesses of his 
soul, in the very vital part of the man. The heart 
of the man is the whole of man, the invisible part 
made in God's image. 

And just as this physical heart dominates all 
physical life, so the heart dominates the whole being 
of man. Every organ will run in Christ's way when 
the heart is right. When the whole heart is set on 
things, the machinery of the whole man is moved into 
action. 

II. The Vision. Vision, as well as sight, is a 
faculty of our nature. Faith and vision are inherent 
in man. He is a faith animal and a vision creature. 

Man has two sets of eyes, and one set is just as 
real as the other. Soul sight is just as real as bodily 
sight, and the pure in heart often see what unwashed 
eyes do not see. 

Paul meets Jesus on the way to Damascus, and 
the vision of the reality and nearness of the unseen, 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 147 

humanity's perfection in Christ, the glory of human 
service, remained with him until earth's shadows 
passed and he went home to heaven. Worldly people 
could see Paul's sufferings, but they could not know 
his joy. They could see the conflict ; he saw the 
vision. 

They saw the vessel driving upon the rocks ; he 
saw the tranquil harbor. 

They saw the scale on earth filled with affliction ; 
he saw the other side weighed down with glory. 

They saw the battle ; he saw the Captain, and 
while the world counted it madness, Paul counted it 
the most reasonable devotion. 

John is flung like a dry seaweed on the beach of 
Patmos, but sees the world's Redeemer, and hears 
his voice once more ; and makes the barren rock a 
writing-desk on which he writes his immortal symbols. 

We don't need a new world ; we need new hearts 
and pure hearts while we live here. 

A lonely island is the very annex of heaven when 
a man has a pure heart and an humble opinion of 
himself, and is in fellowship with Jesus. There is 
not in literature a more pathetic verse than this : 

"He walked with painful stoop, 

As if life made him droop, 
And care had fastened fetters round his feet; 

He saw no bright blue sky, 

Except what met his eye 
Reflected from the rain pools in the street." 

And yet, with a pure heart, Faber represents this 
country laborer happy in the contemplation of God 

anH finmp inr 



148 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

"Always his downcast eye 

Was laughing silently, 
As if he found some jubilee in thinking; 

For his one thought was God ; 

In that one thought he abode, 
Forever in that one thought more deeply sinking." 

That country laborer saw God — saw him here, 
and saw him in the common things of life. 

It is worth while to note in passing that the Be- 
atitudes apply to earth. The conditions and promises 
are here. They are not metaphysical speculations or 
abstractions. The blessings promised are a present 
possession. We can lay our hand on them and enjoy 
them. 

"They that mourn" are here. 

"The meek" are here. 

"Those that hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness" are here. 

"The merciful" are here. 

"The pure in heart" are here, and they enjoy 
God's presence here. 

Christianity is for this world, we know, and likely 
for the world to come. 

If there is any place in the universe I need God's 
love and grace, it is here in this world. If there is 
any place in the universe that I need Christianity, it 
is right here and now. If there is any place a man 
needs conviction, conversion and Christian culture, it 
is here, and if there is any place a man needs pardon, 
peace and comfort, it is here. Religion is for the life 
that now is ; God will take care of the world to come 
for us. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 149 

When the prodigal came to himself he said, "I 
will arise and go to my father." He did not say, 
"I'll arise and go home." God has something better 
for us than heaven right now. 

If I were offered heaven or the road to heaven, I 
would rather have the road to heaven first, for on 
the road we can have our head in heaven and our 
feet on earth. "We are now the sons of God." We 
do not wait for the privilege in ages yet unborn, it is 
our glory now. We are not to be in heaven a lorg 
time after we die, we are in heaven now — with limi- 
tations, but with a sweet hope and deep assurance the 
world can not shake. 

John Bunyan is cast into Bedford jail, and in that 
solitude dreams the "Pilgrim's Progress." The faith 
of a pure heart created a world for Bunyan in jail 
that his persecutors could not appreciate. His "citi- 
zenship was in heaven." His experience was that of 
the diver, who, as he goes down through the encom- 
passing waters, is supplied with air from above, so 
that while he gathers treasures in the depths he 
breathes another world. 

i. They shall see God; the pure in heart have a 
spiritual conception of God that is denied to others. 
The impure heart is spiritually blind. 

One of the most pathetic prayers Jesus prayed 
was when he said, "O righteous Father, the world 
hath not known thee." Often the hearts of the world 
are like lumps of ice in a sea of fire because they do 
not know God. No man ever hated the God and 
Father of Jesus. Men have hated the imaginations 
of their own brain or the creations of their own mind, 



150 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

but the revelation that Jesus gave us of an infinite 
loving Father no man ever hated. 

It is too bad there are prejudices in men's minds 
against God, for no man will love God until he comes 
to the conviction that God loves him. "We love him 
because he first loved us," and because we have come 
to this conviction, our hearts have been warmed by the 
presence of it. 

2. The pure in heart see God in nature. 

When Susan Ferrier was asked, "What is your 
deepest wish?" her answer was, "That life may never 
lose its halo." Life's luster never fades for the pure 
in heart. 

I once called on a Christian woman in Murray, 
Ky. She had been ailing for months, yet she was 
"happy in Him." She said: "Mr. Small, the road 
over which I have traveled has not always been 
smooth, it has often been rough, but I have enjoyed 
every bit of the way." Nature always reflects the 
condition of one's mind. If the mind is bright, all 
nature will be bright. If the mind is pure, all nature 
w T ill be in harmony. 

The pure in heart see the best in nature and the 
best in everything. 

3. The pure in heart see God in the common 
things of life. 

Moses beheld in the desert a bush burning with 
fire and not consumed, and that day he entered upon 
his life's work. Since Jesus has been here, this world, 
to the Christian, is a transfigured world. Every bush 
is aflame with God. To one person a poem is so much 
printed stuff; to another, the interpretation of life. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 151 

A picture to one is so much brilliant coloring; to 
another, a very window into heaven. A face is to 
one so many features ; to another it is a biography 
of a chastened life. On a steamer between Seattle 
and Vancouver I drank a cup of tea like I used to 
drink in an Irish home. It was the best cup of tea 
I have tasted, I think, since my boyhood days. It took 
me back to the thatched cottage on the hillside, to a 
flower garden and orchard, the lofty trees around the 
old home, the meadow, the sunny slope, the valley, 
the mountains in the distance, and to all that made 
boyhood sweet and home dear — mother. 

When Wordsworth's country girl heard a thrush 
sing in London, she was again in the "North Coun- 
trie" and saw 

"A mountain ascending, a vision of trees; 
Bright volumes of vapor through Lothbury glide, 
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside." 

In Ex. 24: ii Moses speaks of the nobles, and 
says : "They saw God, and did eat and drink." Won- 
derful passage. It was not, of course, a perception of 
the bodily eye, for no man can see God and live, but 
it was a mental vision vouchsafed to noble hearts. 

There are those who see God and can not eat and 
drink in gladness. The evil in them and the holiness 
in God are repellant. It is like a boy who has gone 
to his father's pockets at night and has stolen money. 
The evil has separated the boy from his father. The 
attitude of the boy has changed. Some eat and drink 
without seeing God. They make their pile and take 
to themselves the glory. 



152 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Writing to his friend, the apostle John says: "I 
pray you that you be in health and prosper, even as 
your soul prospers." When a man's soul prospers in 
proportion as his business prospers, the bigger the 
business the better. When a man's soul grows with 
his pile, the bigger the pile the better. The more 
money a good man has, the better. 

The pure in heart see God in providence. It was 
said of a boy who found specimens for Agassiz, that 
he was always rewarded by the scientist's "Thank 
you kindly, my boy." 

One day he found only the scale of a fish, and the 
boy complained to the scientist of his poor luck. But 
the keen and cultivated eye of Agassiz saw in the one 
scale a lost specimen of a fish, which proved to be the 
most interesting thing that the boy had found. The 
scientist, from that one scale, put the entire fish to- 
gether. He could see the relation of that one scale 
to all the parts, and he constructed the entire fish 
from it. So the Christian heart can look on even one 
event and see the hand of God in it. 

George Washington said : "He is worse than an 
infidel who can not see that our nation has been sig- 
nally blessed by Providence." He saw the hand of 
God at Lexington, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and 
in all the victories of the Revolutionary Army. 

The Scotch mother, when she rescued her child 
from peril and with danger to herself, said to the 
crowd that had assembled at the base of the crags: 
"Canna ye see the hand o' God in it?" That child, 
she felt, had been rescued for a great task. 

No disaster can come to the pure in heart, for out 



THE INDIANA PULPIT . 153 

of the disaster God, to their vision, always brings 
something better. 

Death itself is the most eloquent preacher of im- 
mortality to the pure in heart. It is but the gateway 
to life and endless day. 

"Our life is but a weaving between my God and me. 
I only see the colors he worketh steadily. 
Full oft he worketh sorrow, and I, in foolish pride, 
Forget he sees the upper and I the under side." 

The story of the old soul that trusted God for 
sixty years is to the point. Some giddy young fellow 
tried to play a practical joke on the old saint. She 
was poor, in need, and reduced to great straits. Be- 
ing a devout Christian, she came to God in prayer. 
Several of the young fellows mentioned, hearing her 
prayer, determined to have a lark. They bought a 
quantity of food at a store and quietly opened her 
cottage door and flung in the food, and got away 
without the old woman knowing how the food had 
come. Next day one of the fellows called upon her, 
and she waxed eloquent in the praises of the goodness 
of God. It had been, she said, as a shield that had 
never been broken, as a sun that had never set, and 
as a fountain that had never dried up. He had an- 
swered her prayer, and sent her food. Whereupon 
the young fellow tried to take some of her faith 
away. "It wasn't God at all," he said, ''that sent it. 
We threw it in, and we bought it at the store around 
the corner, and if you don't believe me, ask the store- 
keeper." Whereupon the old woman replied with 
emphasis : "I don't care what you say. It was God 
that sent it, if the devil himself brought it." 
(6) 



154 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

The pure in heart see the victory of the spiritual 
and the moral ends of the universe. Man's first de- 
velopment was physical. "That was not first which 
was spiritual, but that which was natural," says the 
apostle. Man's first task was to subdue the earth and 
replenish it. 

To pry into the secrets of nature and expound 
them, to lay hold of the forces of nature and employ 
them, to possess the natural riches of earth and enjoy 
them, was man's first work. 

Man's chief estimate and asset in that age was 
physical. In that day the body was more than mind 
or spirit. Men like Jeffries ought to have lived three 
thousand years ago. Men would have been worshiped 
as giants of the earth then. Even Rome's force was 
brute force. 

When Jesus said, "The meek shall inherit the 
earth," imperial Rome began to die. 

A new era has dawned. Men have been seeking 
new fields for centuries. Men are chosen to-day to 
tasks, not because they are physical giants, but be- 
cause they are great intellectually and morally. The 
stress and strain are put on the intellect now. The 
pyramids were the play-blocks of the intellectual baby- 
hood of the race. We have grown since then, and 
we have better work to do now than build pyramids 
to look at. That work was more on man's brawn than 
brain. Now the work of life is largely reversed. 

When we give a diploma to-day it does not tell 
whether the young man is tall or short, weak or 
strong. 

The pure in heart can see that we are coming to 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 155 

another period; it is the period of the moral develop- 
ment of the race. A man now is not great because he 
is a genius, but because he is good. 

There are two possible purposes now — to make a 
living or make a life. In this age the man who makes 
a life while he is making a living fulfills the divine 
measure for his existence. 

The finality of things is not money, but manhood. 
Things were made to serve men ; men were made to 
serve God. We have come to a time when men would 
rather die than lose their reason. We have not 
reached that period when men would rather die than 
lose their conscience, but we will. 

A dethroned conscience will then be seen to be as 
great a calamity as a dethroned intellect. We will yet 
say, "Let me die rather than live an impure life." 
The diplomas will, some day in the future, give an in- 
sight into the moral character of the man. 

In the past we have been studying the first chapter 
of Genesis, and the why of interrogation has been 
on every line. We have changed the emphasis to 
"What?" The last question of the intellect must be, 
What are things for? Man has not only come to the 
uplands of intellect, but to the uplands of human 
service as well. The pure in heart has come to see 
"that the soul of all improvement is the improvement 
of the soul." 

III. The Condition. Every Beatitude has a con- 
dition and a promise. Each Beatitude is distinct. 
There is a regular necklace of "Blesseds" and bless- 
ings. There is danger of the general glitter obscuring 
the character of each gem. 



156 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Each has a sacred and separate reward. "The 
poor in spirit" inherit the kingdom. "The mourners" 
shall be comforted. "The meek" shall inherit the 
earth. "The pure in heart shall see God." 

Why? I will tell you. They develop the God 
fiber that enables them to see. Power unused is 
power abused. We can abuse, misuse or use our 
privileges. 

A gift unused in any realm is a gift withdrawn. 
The man who has the power to see God, and does not 
use it, runs the risk of being deprived of it. What 
we cultivate grows, what we neglect dies. When 
Apelles painted his great picture thousands came to 
admire it. A shoemaker heard of it, and crowded 
with the others to see it. Wlien he had examined it 
he said : "Well, that is surely a great picture but for 
the shoes. The man that painted those shoes don't 
know anything about shoes or tying strings." He 
was a shoemaker, and had developed the gift of 
making shoes and strings. 

Education sees a thing, culture feels it and owns 
it. The old woman in a log cabin who knows God in 
Christ knows more of his grace and providence than 
the scientist who seeks to find God only through in- 
tellect. 

The pure in heart have a clear vision ; the avenues 
to the soul are clean and not clogged. When it seeks 
to escape its enemy, the cuttle-fish throws out from 
itself a colored mass like pinkish ink. Its action is 
like the man who steeps himself in sin that he can 
not see God. Every man who turns aside to do evil 
clouds his mind, and clouds his soul and spirit so that 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 157 

God is hidden as truly as the sun is hidden behind a 
bank of clouds. 

God is seen and felt in a moral atmosphere. We 
can have no just conception of him until we possess 
some of the qualities of character he possesses. Moral 
fitness is a condition in dealing with spiritual things. 
"We shall see him as he is," with Christ-washed eyes 
and transfigured lives. Sitting on an electric car once, 
it stopped suddenly. I said to the conductor, "What's 
the matter?" "Oh, nothing," he said; "only a little 
dirt on the track." The dirt on the track was to the 
track what evil is to the life. The pure heart is the 
heart without lust. Pure sugar is sugar without sand ; 
pure sand is sand without sugar. Anything material 
having no foreign substance is physically pure. 

So John says : "For all that is in the world, the 
lust of the flesh [not the flesh], and the lust of the 
eyes [not the eyes, but the lust of the eyes], and the 
pride of life [not life], is not of the Father, but is of 
the world." 

The foreign substance that destroys soul sight is 
evil, sin, unbrotherliness, selfishness. But while our 
Lord had that in view, he had also purity of motive, 
singleness of mind, absolute devotion to the interests 
of the kingdom. The pure heart is a sincere heart 
an honest heart, a heart united in the love of God 
and man, not drawn in opposite ways by contending 
affections by the love of righteousness on one hand 
and lusts and passions aiming at selfish and sinful 
gratifications on the other. The heart set on God, and 
perfecting its faith and hope and love even in the 
midst of irregularities, is a pure heart. 



158 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

The battle of life is to keep mind and heart cen- 
tered on Christ. To keep Christ reigning and sin 
from reigning is the real struggle. The Bible con- 
tinually displays these two natures of man. Paul 
knew something about the pull of the flesh and the 
constraining love of Christ. He tells us that he de- 
lighted in the .w of God after the inward man. But 
there was another law in his members warring against 
the law of his mind, and seeking to bring him into 
captivity to the la of sin, which he discovered in his 
members. Walkinson, the preacher and scientist, has 
imagined a biologist grafting in its pupa state part of 
a butterfly on to a part of a spider. These grow to 
maturity, and there is combined a passion for the sun- 
shine and at the same time a love of darkness — a 
longing for roses and a love of blood. This is the 
picture of the silent struggle going on in every human 
heart, between what the man is, and what he ought 
to be. 

The pure in heart see God, because they narrow 
their vision. The astronomer who discovered Saturn 
had this experience. He had first of all a vagrant 
look at the star that had rings around. For awhile he 
lost it ; finally a new telescope was made and a dia- 
phragm inserted which narrowed the field of vision, 
and Saturn stood out in all his glory. 

The pure in heart do the same thing. They shut 
off a great deal. They do as the scientist did who dis- 
covered the star, or they do as the man does that is 
looking for a ship on the ocean. The sailor puts his 
hand to his forehead while he looks. Why? In order 
to secure a sharper definition. We will never see the 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 159 

stars in a street blazing with electric lights, and we 
will never see Christ as we ought to see him if our 
thoughts and desires and aims are all squandered 
upon this fleeting present and an evil world. We have 
to look away from the intrusive and vulgar brilliancy 
of the things that are seen and temporal. 

The worldly Christian sees but a dim Christ. The 
little things near shut out the great things remote, 
and the evil we do clouds the soul. When I was at 
Glacier in the Canadian Rockies this summer there 
was a telescope fixed on a tower by which you could 
see things near and far. But the focus for things 
near and far was different. We found if we arranged 
the focus of the telescope so that it commanded near 
objects there was nothing but mist when we turned it 
on distant ones. Field glasses are made on the same 
principle. They make field glasses with an arrange- 
ment by which you turn a screw, and one set of 
glasses is for the field and another for near objects. 

So we have to change the focus of our eyes if 
we are to see "the King in his beauty," and the land 
that is "very far off." Christ will show us himself 
if we only use the eyes which he has given us and 
we keep them from feasting on sordid things. But 
if we are forever feasting the eyes of our souls and 
the desires of our hearts upon the things that are 
seen and temporal, we can never see clearly the things 
that are unseen and eternal. 

And, last of all, the pure in heart see God because 
of the purifying influence of the hope they possess. 
Man lives down to his life or up to his faith and hope. 

He becomes like the Christ he adores He was 



160 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

not only born to trust, but born to rule. He was 
born to kingship. His destiny is not fulfilled until 
he wears a crown and reigns like a king in heaven. 

In a matchless poem Mrs. Mulock Craik pictures 
man as a king. She first crowns the baby with an in- 
visible scepter. She says : 

"Look at me with thy large brown eyes, 
Philip my king." 

Then she crowns him with the scepter of love. 
He has fallen in love with a pure, sweet, beautiful 
girl. 

"Ah ! we that love, love blindly, 
Philip my king." 

Then she crowns him like Saul was crowned as a 
soul above his fellows. He has conquered lust, and 
has placed his feet upon the necks of the kings of 
passion and has won. 

"Yet thy head needeth a circle rarer, 
Philip my king; 
A crown not of gold, but of palm, 
Philip my king. 

"Yet thou must tread a way, as we trod, 

Thorny and cruel and cold and gray; 
Rebels within thee and foes without 

Will snatch at thy crown, 
But march on glorious, 

Martyr and monarch, 

Until angels shout 
As thou sittest at the feet of God victorious, 

Philip the king." 

Blessed are the pure in heart. They shall see 
God, and know victory, and see the palace of the 
King, which is the palace of light and love. 




John A. Spencer, 



1«2 



JOHN A. SPENCER. 

John A. Spencer is a native of Henry County, Va. 
His parents were Pinkney and Mary J. Spencer. He 
made his appearance into this world in the year 1855. 
He received his education in the public schools ; 
Snowville Preparatory, taught by John Hopwood ; 
Bethany College and the College of the Bible. He 
was baptized by T. J. Stone when he was eighteen 
years old. His first work in the ministry was in Al- 
leghany District, Va., where he labored as evangelist, 
and his success was marvelous. He went from this 
field to Strasburg, Va. He served this and other 
churches, which were grouped into one field. He 
went from this field to Bristol, Tenn. ; then to Harri- 
man, Tenn. ; then to Manchester, Va. ; then to Dan- 
ville ; then to Martinsville, Va., and then to Bloom- 
field, Ind. In all of these fields he has been suc- 
cessful, but in none of them has he done a greater 
work than he is doing now at Bloomfield. He is now 
building a beautiful house of worship. His gentle 
disposition, sympathy and deep interest in everybody, 
cause him to be greatly loved. 



163 



SERMON X. 

MAN MORE VALUABLE THAN A SHEEP. 

J. A. Spencer. 

Text. — Matt. 12: 12: "How much then is a man of more 
value than a sheep !" 

It was the Sabbath ; Jesus was in "their syna- 
gogue." "A man having a withered hand" was 
present. The Pharisees sought to accuse Christ. 
They asked him concerning the lawfulness of healing 
on the Sabbath day. Jesus told them it was lawful to 
lift a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath day, and if 
lawful to save the life of a sheep on the Sabbath day, 
surely it must be lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath. 
Then he healed the man. 

This is a day of great values. Highly bred 
chickens, cats, dogs, hogs, sheep, cattle, horses and 
lands are bringing fabulous prices. A hen is valued 
at five thousand dollars. One hundred dogs valued 
at one hundred thousand dollars attended the funeral 
of one of their brothers not long ago. Lands are con- 
stantly increasing in value, and the high cost of living 
is a very vital question now. Alan must increase in 
value with these things or he will not be worth the 
cost of keeping him. Jesus Christ, who truly knows 
the worth of man, values him at an infinitely higher 
price than a sheep. The sheep in some respects may 
have the advantage of man. "It grows its own 

165 



166 THE INDIANA FULPIT 

clothes," pays no taxes, has no fear of death, is not 
troubled with rheumatism, and dreads not the here- 
after. 

Although man was created in the image of God, 
and made to be vastly superior to the sheep, yet he 
may become of less value than a sheep. 

If he lives in the cellar where he is subject to 
overflow, he is of less value than a sheep. The man 
who lives only to eat lives in the cellar. He who does 
not locate his ''earthly house of this tabernacle" above 
high-water mark values himself too low. I spent a 
rainy, uneasy night in a man's house which had been 
flooded by high water, and he had to take his wife 
and child in his arms and wade through the water to 
an upper story to save them. How much better to 
build where floods of the flesh can not reach us ! 

In what respects is a man of more value than a 
sheep ? 

Physically man is better than a sheep. No animal 
has such a body as has man. He is made to stand 
erect. To make him go "on all fours" like the sheep 
would soon derange all members of his body. He is 
made to look up. What a pity he should graze upon 
the fields of sin ! In all animals there is nothing to 
equal his eye, hand, smile and expression of his 
features. His skin, with its delicacy, softness and com- 
plexion, has no parallel in all the animal kingdom. It 
furnishes a medium of communication between the 
mind and things natural. Had man been clothed in 
the hide of the rhinoceros, the wool of the sheep and 
the bristles of the hog, he would have been without 
the finer qualities of his nature. The hand belongs 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 167 

exclusively to man. The nearest approach to it is the 
fin of the fish, wing of the bird, paw of the lion, and 
the hoof of the horse, and, however important they 
may be to them, how inadequate would they be to 
man ! Man's hand has elevated him. With it he con- 
structs the house, paints pictures, bridles the horse, 
makes weapons with which to hunt the lion, "follows 
the arts of peace," makes the "pipe and lyre," builds 
altars, "inscribes laws, and through letters holds com- 
munion with the wisdom of antiquity." Man stands 
at the summit of the animal kingdom. His body is 
the temple of the Holy Spirit. Let us not defile it. 
His broad forehead proclaims to us that he was made 
in God's image. 

Intellectually he is of more value than the sheep. 

All members of his body are symmetrically and 
wonderfully made. They are the servants to develop 
things originated by his intellect. If sheep to-day are 
more valuable than those Noah .turned out of the 
ark, it is because man has made them so. The only 
method of travel the sheep has, is to walk, and if it 
takes a ride, it is indebted to man for it. Great has 
been man's progress. The sheep learns nothing from 
the past, but man uses it as stepping-stones to greater 
heights. Man once only walked, but now he has the 
automobile, the lightning express and the flying-ma- 
chine to speed him on his journey. Once his voice 
was the only method of communicating his thoughts 
to his fellows, but now he uses lightning and wire- 
less messages for that purpose. He accomplishes 
things to-day in a minute which it required months 
once to do. 



168 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

The words spoken by Adam, Noah and Abraham 
are preserved, but the sound of their voices died with 
their utterances, and to-day we not only have the 
words of our fathers, but the phonograph and the 
dictagraph produce the tones in which they were 
spoken. Man has sounded seemingly unfathomable 
depths and flown to greatest heights in his intellectual 
flights. His mind seems boundless in its attainments. 
The rocks have told him of their origin and age. He 
has analyzed the atmosphere, caught the sunbeam in 
its descent and dissected it, and he has invented in- 
struments by which the stars, moon and sun are made 
our neighbors. He brings yesterday's national trag- 
edies and spreads them before us at our breakfast- 
table. Surely he is greater than a sheep. 

Morally man is superior to the sheep. 

The sheep knows nothing of sin. It has no way 
of distinguishing between right and wrong. It can 
neither grow worse nor better. Not so with man. 
He is endowed with the faculty we call conscience. 
The conscience properly educated has been called the 
"vicegerent of God in the soul." To it we arbitrate 
moral questions to settle. It bestows rewards and 
inflicts punishments. As the regulator is to the watch, 
so is the conscience to man. Without it man would be 
but little above the brute. 

Man is vastly more valuable than the sheep be- 
cause he is immortal. 

"Immortality oversweeps all time, all pain, all 
fears, all tears, and peals like the thunders of the 
deep into my heart this truth, Thou livest forever." 
A few years in this world are enough to develop the 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 169 

sheep, but it requires time and eternity to develop 
man. So great is he that two worlds are necessary 
in which to gratify the longing of his soul. Whether 
saved or not, he will not be annihilated. The rich man 
found no such place as annihilation. We can not rid 
us of the belief in and desire for immortality. Does 
the eye cry for light, does the lung long for air, do 
the weary sigh for rest? So does man yearn for the 
joys of the tearless and deathless land. 

The word of God tells of the life beyond: "These 
shall go away into eternal punishment : but the right- 
eous into life eternal" (Matt. 25:46). "But though 
our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is 
renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4: 16). Paul said: "We 
are of good courage I say, and are willing rather to 
be absent from the body and to be at home with the 
Lord." See also 2 Sam. 12:23; John 5:24; 14: 1-3; 
Rom. 6:23; 1 Tim. 6: 12, 19; 2 Tim. 1:1; Rev. 22: 
11. The love for our dead is great proof of im- 
mortality. Moses and Elijah were seen and recog- 
nized after they had left this world. 

"Life makes the soul dependent upon the dust ; 
Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres." 

We value man more highly than the sheep when 
we consider the price paid fcr him after his fall and 
when he was lost to God. Some fine sheep are esti- 
mated at from five to six thousand dollars. England 
marched ten thousand men seven hundred miles at a 
cost of twenty-five million dollars to rescue just one 
man held a prisoner by Theodore, King of Abyssinia. 

Ask the Father the worth of man, and he will say 
he gave his only begotten Son for him. Ask the Son, 



170 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and he says : "The good shepherd layeth down his 
life for his sheep" (John 10: n). Ask Paul, and he 
says: "I. will very gladly spend and be spent for you;" 
"Ye are bought with a price" (i Cor. 6:20) ; "We 
are purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). 
Peter says : "Redeemed not with silver or gold from 
your vain manner of life handed down from your 
fathers; but with precious blood as of a lamb without 
blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ" 
(1 Pet. 1:18). Peter also says some "deny the 
Master who bought them" (2 Pet. 2:1). To value 
men at less than God values them is to put too low an 
estimate upon them. God's estimate is the only cor- 
rect one. 

While we have seen that man is physically, men- 
tally, morally and spiritually of more value than the 
sheep, yet men may regard him as worth less than 
the sheep. 

When we allow the physical to predominate the 
intellectual and the spiritual, we place ourselves on a 
level with the sheep. He who is controlled by passion 
and lust lives the life of a sheep. Take the time some 
spend in seeking something to eat, drink and wear, 
and there remains but little to be devoted to the high 
interests of the soul. He who occupies his time only 
in pleasure and in accumulating things of the earth 
is called a fool by Jesus (Luke 12: 16-21). As the 
appearance of the sheep indicates where it grazes, so 
does man's face tell where he lives. The man who 
does not refrain from using things injurious to the 
body, and thereby fails to develop the best possible 
body, comes short of his greatest usefulness. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 171 

When we do not take advantage of the oppor- 
tunities to improve the mind, we are to the world 
of little more worth than sheep. Intellectual progress 
is essential, and the only way to reach this is by study, 
thought, meditation. 

He who lives an aimless life is of not much more 
value than a sheep. 

There are many dangerous derelicts floating over 
our seas at the will of wind and tide, and they are 
greatly to be dreaded, but the most disastrous dere- 
lict is the man made in God's image floating over 
life's sea without chart or compass. A wealthy 
woman died some time since, and in one room of 
her house were found all kinds of things she had 
bought at sales, and, placing them there, she let them 
remain undisturbed. She had a mania for buying, 
but no purpose in it. So there are many aimless ones 
in life. Many say to their souls, "Take thine ease, 
eat, drink, and be merry." 

I read of a vessel at sea flying the flag of a cer- 
tain country which w T as conquered by another power 
and became subject to it. When the crew of the 
vessel learned what was done, they took down the 
flag of their country, and hoisted the flag of pirates 
instead, and they became the terror of the waters. 
So is the life without a mission. 

Do we really regard man of more value than a 
sheep? Not unless we seek to make ourselves and 
others better than a sheep. We do not esteem man 
ot more value than a sheep unless we set him an 
example which will bring out his real worth. 

Some men are insistent upon developing sheep to 



172 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

their highest state, but make no effort to better the 
brand of manhood. See man perfected in Christ. 
John, the "son of thunder," under Jesus' gentle touch 
becomes the model of tenderness and love. 

When we use men merely to ride into office, for 
our personal preferment, increase our power, crops, 
real estate and bank account, or in any way defraud 
him, we place him upon a par with a sheep. 

If we know men are lost and make no effort to 
save them, they become to us less valuable than a 
sheep. Many men are experts in raising sheep who 
have no interest in making men better. They have 
saved many lambs, but God has not the credit of one 
saved man to their account. Brother, where is your 
certificate of your stock in your brothers? Like those 
who take all off of the land, but put nothing back, so, 
many are getting all they can out of man and in re- 
turn give no reward. Many will build house to house 
and guard their sheep from danger, who make no 
provision to save and protect men, women and chil- 
dren against the unsanitary condition of the sweat- 
shops, and from accidents resulting from railroads 
and machinery. 

The dividends accruing from investments in man 
show man's vast superiority over the sheep. Does it 
pay to invest in hogs, cattle, sheep, horses, lands, 
houses, stocks and bonds? Investment in man is 
more profitable. Did Jesus invest in the harlot at 
Jacob's well? She became one of his most effective 
evangelists. Did he invest in the poor, diseased 
woman? The "virtue" going out of him has encour- 
aged thousands of our sisters, mothers, wives and 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 173 

daughters to touch his garment in blessed healings. 
Did he love Mary? Her devotion to him has made 
fragrant myriads of her sisters, and her story is 
told to earth's teeming millions to bear fruit forever. 
Did he invest in woman? She in return ministered to 
him, and was the first to proclaim his resurrection 
with a tongue of love, whose fiery eloquence girdles 
the earth. Did he invest in the apostles? They went 
into the very jaws of death to live and proclaim him. 

Did Jesus drive demons out of a poor son? He 
went home to tell his people of the great things Jesus 
did for him. Did he take little children up in his arms 
and bless them? He has placed ten thousand angels 
to guard the cradles of all the world, and clothes 
children with the purity of heaven itself. Did the 
great Fisher of Men invest in Peter, the fisherman, 
one morning on the Lake of Galilee? Peter was the 
first to catch thousands of Jews and Gentiles with the 
hook of the gospel, and he has portrayed to us the 
glory he saw with Christ on the Mount of Trans- 
figuration, and his words live to point us to the "in- 
heritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth 
not away, reserved in heaven for us." Did Jesus call 
Paul up into the "third heaven"? Paul's life is an 
example to countless lives, and he gladly tells us of 
the "crown of righteousness" and "the house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

Oh, how it pays to invest in men ! A smile, a cup 
of cold water, a kind word, a tear, a dollar invested 
in men will return a wonderful profit. Investment in 
things is for time ; that in men is for eternity. Flood, 
flame, storm, disaster may destroy all time invest- 



174 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

ments, but not so with investments made in men. In- 
vestment in things material makes men narrow, self- 
ish, but investment in men enriches, enlarges and 
ennobles them. Where our investments are, there 
are our treasures, and where our treasures are, there 
are our hearts. He who invests in things invests in 
sand, but he who invests in men writes upon the 
tablets of eternity. Government bonds are considered 
safe, for all we have is behind them. Confederate 
money is worthless, because the Government of the 
Southern Confederacy was overthrown. It is not so 
with the kingdom of God. The coin paid for man 
was issued by the government of heaven. The in- 
vestment of a life given to Christ is for eternity. 
Paul invested in the Thessalonians, and they became 
his ''hope, joy and crown of glorying" (i Thess. 2: 
19, 20). They were his. How many are there whom 
we can claim because we invested in them? "They 
that sow in tears shall reap in joy." "He that goeth 
out and weepeth, bearing seed of sowing, shall doubt- 
less come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with 
him." While the wayside, stony and thorny ground 
brings nothing, we are told by Jesus that the good 
ground produces thirty, sixty and a hundred fold. 

It is easy to get men to invest in sheep, cattle, 
lands, houses and bonds and stocks, but how hard it 
is to induce men to invest in their fellows. The joint- 
stock company of heaven is the only one in which the 
small investor can remain. The trusts are driving the 
men of small means out. A man in Greene County, 
Ind., invented iron fence-posts. A few men got the 
right from him and organized a company and made 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 175 

the posts. The American Wire and Steel Company 
forced the other to sell out, and now they are ex- 
clusive owners of the plant. 

But in the kingdom of God the man with one 
talent may invest as well as the man with five talents. 
If we invest in live stock, they will die ; if we invest 
in lands, it will melt with fervent heat; if we invest 
in houses, the flame may destroy them ; if we invest 
in stocks, they may become worthless, and if we in- 
vest in Government bonds, our Government is to 
cease ; but if we invest in men, we will be drawing 
dividends forever. Throughout the ages of eternity 
there will be no sorrow to mar the joy of our reaping. 
If the investment in the prodigal gives him such a 
welcome at his "father's house" — the "best robe," 
"sandals for his feet," "the fatted calf," the most 
thrilling music and the father's kiss as a partial divi- 
dend here — what will be the wonders of the results 
when we enter into the "joy of our Lord"? 

Are our smiles, tears, prayers, words of love, time, 
money, invested in men? Then we are investing in 
a gold mine inexhaustible. Are we investing in the 
widows, orphans, afflicted, sad, weak, young, old, the 
evangelist, the missionaries in behalf of the heathen, 
the physician to heal them of their diseases? Then, 
rest assured that not only in this life, with ten thou- 
sand rewards here, but when this old earth shall have 
"melted with fervent heat," the stars go out, the 
moon "veiled in blood," and the sun plucked from his 
"golden shield," we shall rejoice in heaven for ever 
and ever because we lived for others. 




Lawrence O. Newcomer. 



176 



LAWRENCE O. NEWCOMER. 

Lawrence O. Newcomer, the subject of this sketch, 
was born near Dawson, in Fayette County, Pa., Oct. 
8, 1871. When a boy he worked on his father's farm 
during the summer, and attended the district school 
during the winter months. At the age of seventeen 
he entered the State Normal School at California, Pa. 
After attending school here for one term, he followed 
teaching school until the fall of 1891, when he en- 
tered Bethany College, graduating in 1895. After his 
graduation he took up work at Duquesne, Pa., where 
a few brethren had organized a Bible school and were 
meeting in an old hall. From this nucleus a good 
congregation was built up and housed in a comfort- 
able building in one of the most desirable locations in 
the city. In 1899 he entered Hiram College, where 
he took his master's degree after one year of post- 
graduate work. He then accepted a call to Canton, 
Pa. Here his labors were crowned with unusual suc- 
cess. Upon the advice of his physician, he went to 
California to regain his wasted energies from a severe 
attack of illness. It was not long, however, after 
reaching California, that he was able to accept an 
invitation to minister to the little church at Glendora. 
While here his audiences grew at almost every service, 
and few Sundays passed without accessions to the 
church. In accordance with the increase in member- 
ship, the salary grew from six dollars to twenty dol- 
lars per week. After about eighteen months he re- 
turned East, locating with the church at Eaton, Ind. 
Here he remained for two years, then accepted an 

177 



178 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

invitation to a larger work at Mt. Vernon, O. It was 
here that Mr. Newcomer came into prominence as 
a Bible-school worker. During his ministry of four 
years he built up the great Adelphian class of Loyal 
Men to an enrollment of 535 men, with an attendance 
of from two hundred to three hundred men per Sun- 
day. In the meantime, the Bible school increased 
from an enrollment of 200 to 1,240, including the 
Cradle Roll department. Mr. Newcomer is a hard- 
working pastor, and in the pulpit he is scholarly and 
artistic. Besides having written a number of tracts, 
he is the author of "The Bible Student's Manual." 
He is low located at Connersville, Ind. 



SERMON XI. 

THE PLEA OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST; 

OR, 

THE MOVEMENT FOR THE RESTORATION 

OF APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY. 

L. O. Newcomer. 

Text. — John 17 : 20, 21 : "Neither for these only do I pray, 
but for them also that believe on me through their word ; 
that they may all be one ; even as thou. Father, are in me, 
and I in thee, that they also may be in us : that the world 
may believe that thou didst send me." 

To say that this is the Lord's Prayer will doubt- 
less surprise many, as we have been taught that when 
Jesus said to his disciples, "When ye pray, say, Our 
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy 
kingdom come," that this is the "Lord's Prayer." 
However, this is a mistake. This was the prayer he 
taught the disciples, to be used by them. They were 
to pray for the establishment of the kingdom or 
church. 

Our Lord's Prayer is, that all who believe in him 
may be one. That is, that there be no divisions in the 
church : that all be perfectly joined together in the 
same mind and in the same judgment. That this 
prayer may be answered is the great plea as made 
by the disciples of Christ in the world to-day. They 
plead for the union of all baptized believers on the 
Bible, and the Bible alone. Their motto is, "In es- 

179 



180 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

sentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all 
things charity." 

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH. 

When Jesus came to his disciples at Caesarea 
Philippi, he asked them, saying, "Who do men say 
that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say 
John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, 
or one of the prophets. 

"He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am ? 
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus an- 
swered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon 
Barjona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I 
say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this 
rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it." Upon whom or upon 
what was the church to be built? 

Some assert that it was built upon Peter, while 
others affirm that it was upon the confession made 
by Peter. Let us see. "Thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build my church." "Thou" refers to 
the apostle. "This" refers to Christ, or the truth 
contained in Peter's confession, that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus says, "My 
church." Paul says, "He is the head of the body, the 
church ; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the 
dead ; that in all things he might have the pre-emi- 
nence" (Col. 1:18). And again, "Other foundation 
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus 
Christ" (i Cor. 3; 11). 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 181 

This confession was made by Peter A. D. 29. In 
Acts 2 : 47 we read : "And the Lord added to the 
church daily such as were being- saved." This was 
A. D. 30, hence the church must have come into ex- 
istence some time between A. D. 29 and A. D. 30. 
In Luke 24 : 49 we read : "And, behold, I send the 
promise of my Father upon you ; but tarry ye in the 
city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power 
from on high." In Acts 2:1-4 we find the fulfillment 
of these words. The disciples were endued with power 
from on high, and the apostle Peter, while under the 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, made known the terms 
of salvation or redemption to the world, as recorded 
in Acts 2 : 38 : "Repent, and be baptized every one 
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission 
of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Spirit." "Then they that gladly received the word 
were baptized ; and the same day there were added 
unto them about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41). 
It is clear, therefore, that the church was established 
the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, in the city of Jerusalem. 

There were certain marks which characterized the 
church in the beginning of its history, such as faith, 
repentance, confession and baptism, as necessary steps 
for admission, and the regular observance of the 
Lord's Supper upon the first day of the week as a 
part of the worship. None of these features were 
omitted while the church was under the direction of 
the apostles. The apostles were divinely inspired to 
carry on their work, so that there would be an abso- 
lute guarantee of the correctness of all their pro- 



182 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

ceedings. After the death of the apostles, however, 
the church began to wander away from the primitive 
order of things. Then came the gradual growth of 
the "man of sin." "A thousand years of spiritual and 
intellectual darkness." 

"This was the mid-day of Roman Catholicism and 
the midnight of the world's civilization and progress." 
In the days of the apostles it was first the word of 
God; second, the church of God, and last, the min- 
ister of the church. Rome reversed the divine order, 
putting the priests with the Pope at their head first, 
the church second, and the Bible last. "Corruption 
disgraced the church, and the church disgraced the 
world." How true of this period were the words of 
the poet: 

"Right forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne ; 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim un- 
known 
Standeth God amid the shadows, keeping watch above his 

own." 

"Martin Luther was the first to stir these stagnant 
waters of sin and ignorance, and to strike the death- 
blow to mental despotism." The hope of Martin 
Luther was to eliminate many of the corruptions 
which had crept into the church. He did the best he 
knew, but had no idea of organizing another church 
that would henceforth wear his name. He was far 
in advance of his time, but he did not conceive the 
idea of going back to the purity and simplicity of the 
ancient order of things. Then came the Wesleyan 
Reformation, which was another milestone on the 
way from Babylon to Jerusalem. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 183 

The good of this movement no one can question, 
and it came in the fullness of time. Still others of 
more or less importance had their part in blazing the 
way to the primitive order of things. Luther, Wes- 
ley, Whitefield, Calvin and others were as stars in 
the spiritual firmament pointing toward the great solar 
luminary of Christendom, Alexander Campbell and his 
coadjutors, who would yet illuminate these star-lit 
heavens with all the brightness of eternal morning. 

The movement for the restoration of apostolic 
Christianity as inaugurated by the Campbells and 
others, I believe, is very beautifully represented by the 
angel whom John saw fly in the midst of heaven, 
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them 
that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kin- 
dred and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, 
Fear God and give glory to him ; for the hour of his 
judgment is come ; and worship him who made 
heaven, and earth, and the sea, and fountains of 
water" (Rev. 14:6, 7). Here, as in many other 
instances in the Bible, the word "angel" means mes- 
senger. The messenger was the leader of this move- 
ment, who came forth with the open Bible in the one 
hand and the olive branch of peace in the other, and 
began to plead that the Bible be taken as the rule of 
faith and practice of all those who profess belief in 
him who is the Father of us all. 

"In the year 1807 Thomas Campbell, a minister of 
the Seceder Presbyterian Church, of more than ordi- 
nary ability, moved to this country and was assigned 
by the Synod to the Presbytery of Chartiers, in Penn- 
sylvania. He soon came to be regarded as the most 



184 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

learned and talented preacher in that presbytery. In 
his new field he saw the evils of denominationalism. 
There were many religious people, of different faiths, 
living without the enjoyment of ministerial service 
and other means of grace. His sympathies were soon 
aroused in behalf of those who were thus deprived 
of many religious blessings because of their divided 
condition, and at one time invited his pious hearers, 
without respect to denominational differences, to en- 
joy the communion service then providentially af- 
forded them. Because of this action, charges were 
preferred against Mr. Campbell before the presbytery, 
among which was the assertion that he had little re- 
spect for 'division walls' and that he was disposed to 
relax too much the rigidness of ecclesiastical rules, 
and to cherish for other denominations feelings of 
fraternity. But when arraigned, like Peter and John 
he said, 'Whether it be right in the sight of God, to 
hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.' 
While the presbytery condemned him, the synod set 
aside the judgment,' and he still tried to continue in 
the ministry of these people, but the spirit of sec- 
tarianism so completely overruled the spirit of Christ 
that he finally severed his ministerial connection with 
the Seceder Presbyterian Church." 

"The novelty and the force of the plea which he 
made for Christian liberty and Christian union, upon 
the basis of the Bible, drew to him large numbers of 
ardent sympathizers." Before these he announced 
the immortal words that "Where the Scriptures speak, 
we speak, and where the Scriptures are silent, we are 
silent." To many this was a new revelation and 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 185 

henceforth became the burden of their preaching. 

"In August, 1809, the Christian Association was 
proposed, and organized a month later, for the sole 
purpose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity, 
free from all opinions and inventions of men." Alex- 
ander Campbell, the son of Thomas Campbell, joined 
his father in this movement and soon became its 
recognized leader. This movement was not for a 
reformation, but for a "restoration of the church to 
its primitive or apostolic worship and the gospel to 
the form in which it was delivered." 

It does not mean another church or a new church, 
for there are already too many churches, and some 
of these are so "brand-new" that they bear little if 
any resemblance to the apostolic church. Barton W. 
Stone, Walter Scott and others joined in this move- 
ment, and together said : "We must go back beyond 
Rome, whence came Roman Catholicism. Back be- 
yond Geneva, whence came Calvinism. Back beyond 
Germany, whence came Dunkardism. Back beyond 
London, whence came Episcopalianism. Back beyond 
England, whence came Methodism. Back, back to 
the old foundation at Jerusalem, 'Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God.' ' : And so to-day we say 
to the denominational world, come and cast yourself 
upon the broad and free expanse of divine revelation, 
unrestricted by the narrow boundaries of parties or 
sects and undaunted by human animadversion, to seek 
the pearls and the treasures of divine truth. 

Paul, in writing to the church at Corinth, said: 
"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, 

(") 



186 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and that there be no divisions among you, but that you 
be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in 
the same judgment" (i Cor. 1:10). Already Paul 
saw the shades of division drawing near at Corinth. 
One class of men, energetic and industrious, would 
be led toward Cephas ; another, of scholastic taste, 
would be led to the logic and philosophy of Paul, while 
still another, of emotional and oratorical character, 
would look to Apollos. 

However, contention for awhile was silenced, but 
soon our hero of unity is taken to. the altar of sacri- 
fice, and when his presence is removed, and his voice 
is hushed, the human passion, fermenting with sacri- 
ficing ambition, lays down with haughty modesty the 
product of her labors in the gratification of an open 
rupture. Some say that "divisions are like so many 
regiments in an army, each having a separate colonel, 
but all under one great commander — Jesus Christ, and 
all fighting the same foe — the devil, and all his evil 
devices. But regiments do not fight each other; they 
wear the same uniform, march under the same orders, 
and subsist upon a common treasury. This might 
illustrate one church of different congregations scat- 
tered throughout the land, but not the conflicting, 
warring sects of Christendom. "Endeavoring to keep 
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." "There 
is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in 
one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, and 
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above 
all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph. 4:3-6). 
Here lies the salvation of the Christian faith. This 
view will bridge the great chasm between churchianity 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 187 

and Christianity. This view will remove all sectarian 
barriers between Christ and his church. Jesus on his 
way to the "garden of sorrows" prayed for the union 
of his followers. So we are not the first to advocate 
union. It was the prayer and the plea of Jesus. We 
believe that the world is now realizing the importance 
of Christian union and that the prayer of Jesus must 
yet be answered. 

THE NAME OF THE CHURCH. 

And the one name upon which all can unite. 

Jesus says, "My church," hence it must wear his 
name. In the Book of Revelation John speaks of the 
church as the bride. The bride must wear the name 
of the husband ; if she fails to do this, but wears an 
assumed name, she is disgraced. The same is true of 
the church, the Lamb's bride. Hence the church must 
be called the church of Christ. In the Scriptures we 
have "churches of Christ" (Rom. 16:16); "church 
of God" (i Cor. 1:2); "church of the firstborn" 
(Heb. 12:23). It is sometimes called "The Christian 
Church," 5s expressing the relation which Christians, 
or the followers of Christ, bear to Christ, who is the 
Head of the church. Christ called his followers "dis- 
ciples," and we learn in Acts 1 1 : 26 that the disciples 
were called Christians first at Antioch. They were 
called Christians because they were followers of 
Christ. As long as they continued to wear his name 
they were commended, but when they began to say, "I 
am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas," they 
w r ere severely condemned. 

In relation to Christ we are called disciples or 



188 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Christians (Acts 11:26). In relation to each other 
we are called brethren (Matt. 23:8; John 21:23). 
In relation to holiness we are called saints ( 1 Cor. 1 : 
2; Rom. 1:7). In relation to God we are called 
children (Rom. 8: 16; Gal. 3:26; 1 John 3: 10). 

Paul says in Gal. 3 : 27: "As many of you as have 
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." When 
we "put on Christ" we take his name, the one "of 
whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named" 
(Eph. 3: 15). 

If God's children are ever to be united on this earth 
it must be on the exclusive name of Jesus Christ. It 
must be in the recognition of the fact that none but 
Christ has a right to determine the name of his church. 
All human names must be withdrawn and Christ must 
be acknowledged as the "head of the body." 

Luther says, "Do not call yourselves Lutherans, 
but call yourselves Christians." Wesley says, "I 
would to God that all party names were forgotten." 
These words should strike a responsive chord in the 
hearts of all their followers. We are all brethren, 
aiming for the same ultimate end, then let us unite 
and strengthen our forces under the divine name of 
"Jesus the Christ." Let these words be printed in 
burning letters on the banner under which we sail. 

THE CREED OF THE CHURCH. 

Is there a creed upon which we can all unite with- 
out the sacrifice of truth or conscience? Yes. 

"Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
This is the only creed, and it is divine. "If thou 
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 189 

shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him 
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the 
heart man believeth unto righteousness ; and with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10: 
9, 10). "Other foundation can no man lay than that 
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" ( I Cor. 3 : n). 
"These things are written that ye might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing 
ye might have life through his name" (John 20: 31). 
God said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased; hear ye him." For Moses truly said 
unto the fathers : "A prophet shall the Lord your God 
raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; 
him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall 
say unto you." Yes, Jesus must henceforth rule the 
ransomed race. Before him all human creeds must 
pale their splendors as do the stars of night before the 
refulgent glory of the coming day. Should not a con- 
templation of these things make our hearts leap be- 
yond the narrow boundaries of parties or sects, to link 
in love all who claim Jesus as their Saviour and 
acknowledge allegiance to his holy Word? All sub- 
stitutions for the divine creed are as granulated as the 
sand-banks along the river of time, and must be swept 
away by the crystal stream bearing upon its bosom 
a halo of brighter glory. Here the human race has 
found the Mecca of its hope. Here is the One who 
will loose the shackles from our souls and make us 
free. Here is the One who can irradiate the realms 
beyond the grave with light and hope and eternal joy 
and bring the glad tidings of salvation to all people. 
He will live and reign when earth has passed away 



190 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and its empires have been forgotten. The hills them- 
selves must perish, the granite ribs of earth shall 
crumble and all things material shall pass away, but 
Jesus, the creed of Christendom, is imperishable and 
shall outlast the morning stars. Thrones shall crumble 
before him, empires shall fall, humanity shall arise 
from its degradation and its bondage in its coronation 
robes, and a new. age shall dawn upon the nations 
of the earth and refresh the hearts of her weary 
millions, and that age will be an age that will bow to 
the name of Jesus as Christ and creed of all. 

CONDITIONS OF ENTRANCE INTO THE CHURCH. 

According to the Holy Scriptures, which we must 
take as our only guide, there are four necessary steps 
which lead us from a state of condemnation and sin 
into the kingdom of joy, forgiveness and peace. 
These are faith, repentance, confession and baptism. 
These are linked in one holy union, and "what God 
hath joined together let no man put asunder." 

Concerning the necessity of faith, repentance and 
confession, I believe there is no controversy. As to 
the origin of faith, the evidence of repentance, and 
the manner of confession, there may be a difference 
of opinion, but that these three are necessary we all 
admit. Concerning the question of Christian baptism 
there should be the same unanimity. All admit that 
the immersion of the penitent believer in water is 
Christian baptism. In this respect there should be no 
controversy, for we know it to be primitive or apos- 
tolic. From the divine order of things we dare not 
deviate. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 191 

THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

In the apostolic church the disciples came to- 
gether upon the first day of the week to break bread 
(Acts 20:7). Two things are obvious here. First, 
that it was an established custom for the disciples to 
come together upon the first day of the week, and, 
second, the primary object of their coming together 
was to break bread. Jesus said, "Do this in memory 
of me." To be faithful to the Scriptures, we should 
meet together upon the first day of the week, to keep 
the Saviour's request, to commemorate his love until 
he comes to gather the redeemed unto himself in the 
fullness of joy. 

THE DIVINE MODEL. 

Here is the church of Christ as it was in the be- 
ginning. The church, with the commands and ordi- 
nances as they were given by Christ .and the apostles. 
The church that has no name but the divine, no creed 
but the Christ and no guide but the Bible. Some have 
looked into the future for an imaginary church. They 
try to conceive how it is possible to hold to their 
human names, human creeds, conflicting dogmas and 
doctrines, and yet unite upon some basis which will 
satisfy the minds and hearts of all concerned. But 
we must remember that it is not for man to determine 
the basis of union. This must be left for Christ and 
his apostles. This is all we ask in our movement for 
the restoration of apostolic Christianity. It is simply 
a return to the divine order of things. In this, we 
assure you that we do not ask you to come to us, but 
to come with us to Christ and apostolic teaching. We 



192 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

believe this is the greatest movement ever born upon 
the American continent. Yea, the greatest movement 
that ever stirred the heart and the mind of man. 
And under its inspiration we go forth to lay the 
broad spiritual foundation of the temple of our God, 
whose pillars shall rest upon the uttermost parts of 
the earth and whose lofty arches shall forever rever- 
berate with the echoes of immortal songs, going up 
from every nation, kindred and tongue, to forever 
glitter in the sunbeams of eternity. I praise the day 
I became identified with this movement. With all my 
ransomed powers, I praise my God to-day that he 
counted me worthy to be enlisted with those who plead 
for Christianity in its pristine glory. I am glad to 
be numbered with the seven thousand ministers of 
the gospel who make known to the world the great 
plea of the disciples of Christ, and, backed by one 
million and a half of followers, we will march over 
hill and dale to tell it, and to defend it and its glories 
forever. 

Among the sects or denominations are many who 
are sincere in their belief, and we hope to meet them 
with rejoicing on the morning of everlasting day. In 
their creeds and confessions are many things which 
are sacred, but none so sacred as those which we find 
written in the only charter of immortality to man. 
There is no name like His name, no creed like the 
Christ, the Son of the living God, and no plea like 
the plea for the union of baptized 'believers on the 
Bible, and it alone. No aim like the aim to restore the 
church to its primitive or apostolic worship, and the 
gospel to the form in which it was delivered. 



THE IX D I AX A PULPIT 193 

GROWTH OF THE MOVEMENT. 

Statistics show that the disciples of Christ have 
increased more rapidly than any sect or denomination 
in America, and they now seem destined to sweep the 
globe. And why not? Christianity is not an experi- 
ment. God is not a man that he should make an ex- 
periment. Jesus Christ was not idly boasting when 
he said to Peter at Caesarea Philippi, "Upon this rock 
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. ' 

It has met opposition as Christ predicted it would. 
It has passed through the fiery furnace of the most 
scathing criticism, but, like the pure gold of Ophir, it 
has come forth with a radiance, a grandeur and a 
glory which surpasses all theory and all speculation 
of all generations of men. Lien have suffered and 
men have bled for it. The history of their persecution 
is a book of many pages, and each page is stereo- 
typed in the foundry of eternity. The work of their 
marvelous lives will be read and reread in the glorified 
image of their souls when earth has been dissolved 
and its empires have been forgotten. But why all 
this opposition? Only because the human mind is 
slow to receive the truth and to grasp the reality. The 
calmest sea does not always carry the most pas- 
sengers. The thorn may prick the hand that plucks 
the rose. So apostolic doctrine may meet opposition, 
but from the passing clouds we turn to gaze upon the 
rising sun that brings us the glad message of a better 
day when truth shall reign triumphant forever. The 
word of the Lord has spoken; it can not fail. Oh, 



194 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

men and angels, hear ! Before Him who leads us in 
this holy mission all opposing powers, with their shat- 
tered veracity, must take their last stand and the flag 
of faith float in the skies of God. The redeemed are 
rallying on "Zion's holy hill." In their midst stands 
One bright and fair. No blood-stain is on His 
raiment now, but, clad in the glorified robes of the 
race he came to save, he utters his last prayer, 
"Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me ; they 
are one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee." 
Then together we can sing with one united vc^ce in 
spirit and in truth: 

"All hail the power of Jesus' name ! 
Let angels prostrate fall ; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of all." 
Amen. 




^_ 

William Tebbs Brooks, 



196 



• WILLIAM TEBBS BROOKS. 

W. T. Brooks was born eight miles north of Paris, 
Mo., on the 28th of December, 1869. His parents 
were Evan S. Brooks and Malvina Kennedy Brooks, 
both of Kentucky stock — the father from Mason 
County, Ky., and the mother's people from Bourbon 
County. 

To these parents w T ere born four boys — Crayton 
Sandifer, William Tebbs, Clyde Evans and Arthur 
Kennedy — three of whom entered the ministry; the 
other one (Clyde E. Brooks) entering the profession 
of medicine. 

The Brooks family has had in its line many 
preachers, notably John Thomas Brooks, grandfather 
of the subject of this sketch, and John A. Brooks, an 
uncle. John T. Brooks was a pioneer preacher, editor 
and lecturer of Kentucky and Missouri. John A. 
Brooks was noted as a lecturer, preacher, revivalist 
and politician. He was candidate at one time for 
Governor of Missouri, and at another time was candi- 
date for Vice-President of the United States. 

W. T. Brooks graduated from Perry College in 
Missouri and from the Bible College of Kentucky Uni- 
versity, receiving his diploma from the latter institution 
in June, 1896. He taught school two years in Missouri 
before entering college, receiving a State certificate 
from the Paris Institute when only eighteen years of 
age. During his college life in Kentucky he was editor 
of the college paper, The Transylvanian, manager of 
the Lyceum Lecture course, and pastor of two 
churches — Bridgeport and Turnersville, Ky. 

197 



198 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

After graduation he was married to Miss Minnie 
Christy, of Lexington, Ky. The newly married couple 
moved at once to Ladoga, Ind., where they held a 
pastorate for six years, which resulted in six hundred 
being added to the church. 

In 1904, W. T. Brooks entered the evangelistic 
field, and has since that time been actively engaged in 
revival work. He retains his home at Ladoga, Ind., 
where reside at this date his mother, wife and little 
daughter, Virginia. 



SERMON XII. 

AN OLD LOVE STORY. 

W. T. Brooks. 

( Stenographically reported as delivered in Ryman's 
Auditorium, Nashville, Term.) 

Love, courtship, marriage, birth, death. What an 
old, old story ; yet how new. War, famine, pestilence 
and persecution have marked the passing of the cen- 
turies, but the shining thread of this old story runs 
through it all. There is a little book that I know, 
containing four short chapters, all of which you can 
read through in twenty minutes, that is the most 
exquisite love story ever written. Pathos, affliction, 
toil, love, life, death — all woven into a story as beau- 
tiful as an angel's dream. And the story is true. 
Better than all else, it has to do with one we all know 
and love — our own precious Elder Brother. 

We are told in the first lines about some Eph- 
rathites. of the beautiful village of Bethlehem- judah. 
Here we find a happy home containing the father 
Elimelech, the mother Naomi, and the two boys 
Mahlon and Chilion. Now the secret is out and you 
know my book. It is the Book of Ruth, set as a 
beautiful jewel between the Book of Judges on the 
one side and First Samuel on the other. How much 
does God honor woman! Two books of the Bible 
named for women; one was for the beautiful Queen 

199 



200 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Esther and the other for a Moabitess girl. The widow 
and her mites will be remembered when John D. 
Rockefeller and his munificent donations have been 
forgotten. The story of that alabaster box and the 
penitent woman will be told when Helen Gould and 
her millions are crumbled into dust. Ruth will be 
honored when Joan of Arc and Josephine have faded 
from human history. 

There came a famine in the land of Bethlehem, 
and Elimelech and his wife had had to gather their 
belongings together and journey to some place where 
there was bread. They passed around the sea into the 
land of Moab. Did you ever consider the influence of 
famine and persecution on the history of the world? 
Do you know that our own land has been peopled with 
those who were persecuted and lashed into the sea, 
or were stricken with famine? Our land of liberty 
furnishes one more chance to the man who has been 
pushed to the last extremity in the Old World. A 
quarter of a million landed at Castle Garden last year. 
They come, a starving horde, to battle for bread. This 
man had planned, no doubt, to remain in this pagan 
land only a little while, but the seasons swiftly passed, 
and he found it hard to return. Then Elimelech 
sickened and died. They buried him in this strange 
land. It must be an awful moment when a wife stands 
by an open grave and sees the body of her husband laid 
away forever. No strong arm now upon which she 
can lean, no brave heart to help face life's problems, 
no sheltering bosom to protect her from life's storms. 
Naomi was stricken with terrible grief. 

And death is always sad. I was riding with some 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 201 

friends in a certain Southern city one Sunday after- 
noon when we passed through the city of the dead. A 
lady in the carriage asked the driver to stop the horses 
a moment. She pointed to a little group about an 
open grave. A little white casket was being lowered 
into the earth. There stood the young parents, sob- 
bing out their sorrow. The lady in the carriage said, 
"I know what all of that means, for I buried away a 
little babe only a year ago." Sorrow makes the whole 
world kin. I read the other day an anonymous poem 
entitled "Tired Mothers." 

"A little elbow rests upon your tired knee, 

Your tired knee that has so much to bear: 
A child's dear eyes are looking lovingly 

From neath a thatch of tangled hair, 
A little hand clasps yours with loving touch, 

The warm, moist fingers are holding yours so tight — 
You do not prize the blessing overmuch, 

You are almost too tired to pray to-night. 

"But it is blessedness. 

A year ago I did not see it as I do to-day: 
We are all so dull and thankless 

And too slow to catch the sunlight 'till it fades away. 
But now it seems surpassing strange to me 

That, while I wore the badge of motherhood, 
I did not kiss more oft and tenderly the little child 

That brought me only good. 

"And if some night when you sit down to rest, 

You miss the elbow from your tired knee, 
That restless, curly head from off your breast, 

That lisping tongue that chattered constantly; 
If from your own the dimpled hand has slipped, 

Never to nestle in your palm again ; 
If into the grave the little feet have crept — 

I could not blame you for your heartache then. 



202 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

"I wonder so that mothers ever fret 

At children clinging to their gown, 
Or that footprints when the days are wet 

Are ever black enough to make them frown. 
If I could kiss a rosy, restless foot, 

Or hear it patter in my home once more; 
If I could find a muddy boot, 

Or cap or jacket, on my chamber floor; 
If I could mend a broken cart to-day, 

To-morrow make a kite to reach the skies, 
There is no woman in God's world can say 

That she is more blissfully content than I. 
But, alas ! the little pillow next my own 

Is never rumpled by a shining head : 
My singing birdling from its nest has flown. 

The little babe I used to kiss is dead." 

Afterwards the boys married. One married a girl 
by the name of Ruth, and the other's wife was named 
Orpah. Beautiful names, and no doubt beautiful girls. 
I feel sure they must have all lived in one family, for 
there seems to have been such a close companionship 
and tender affection between them all. There is an 
after-touch in the story that shows that the girls were 
very kind to their husbands and to the mother. 

The years passed quickly by, and then the boys also 
sicken and die. Naomi's heart cries out in agony and 
distress that she came into the land full and now she 
is bereft. Having buried the last of her family, her 
heart now turns to the scenes of the past, and she 
wants to go back to Bethlehem, where the first years 
of her married life were spent. There the boys were 
born ; there she had been so happy and so hopeful. 
She was homesick. Homesickness is the worst disease 
in the world. No medicine will reach it, no human 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 203 

comfort will alleviate the keen pangs. In my college 
days I saw this illustrated every year. I once came 
upon a grown man on the college campus crying like 
a child. I asked him what was the trouble, and he told 
me he was homesick. I told him to go home. "No, 
no, I must stay ten months," he said; "and my wife 
and baby are away up in Canada." "Well, cry," I 
said ; "it will do you good." 

One of our lecturers has told us of his experience 
when making a tour around the world. He said he 
was in Tokyo waiting for a ship to sail for Frisco. 
The time was dragging, and he was impatient to get 
away. He said he longed to see some one from the 
States, or something from home, if only a dog. He 
turned a corner, and, to his joy, he beheld a Standard 
Oil wagon pulled by a pair of Indiana mules and 
driven by a Pittsburg Irishman, and he ran with all 
his might, and when he reached them he kissed wagon, 
mules and all. 

Naomi started home one morning, her daughters- 
in-law attending her a part of the way, and as the 
rising sun bathed all the land in beauty they came to 
a crest of a hill, and then the mother turned and said: 
"Go, return each to your mother's house: the Lord 
deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, 
and with me." Then she kissed them, and they all 
lifted up their voices and wept. And they said unto 
her, "Surely we will return with thee unto thy people." 
And Naomi said : "Turn again, my daughters : for 
why will ye go with me? It grieveth me much for 
your sakes, that the hand of the Lord has gone out 
against me." 



204 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Then Orpah kissed her mother good-by, and 
turned back to her own people and her own gods. 
That poor girl's name is forever lost. Not one hint of 
her after-career do we find. Just so there will be 
those in this revival who will pass to the hilltops of 
experience, and if they turn back it will be a turning 
into worse than oblivion. Ruth clave unto her mother, 
and said: "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return 
from following after thee ; for whither thou goest, I 
will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy 
people shall be my people, and thy God my God; 
where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried ; 
the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death 
part thee and me." United in this wonderful love, 
they passed on into the land of Bethlehem- judah. 
When they had come to the town, the people said, 
"Who is this woman? Is it not Naomi?" And she an- 
swered and said: "Call me not Naomi, but call me 
Mara; for the Lord hath dealt bitterly with me. I 
went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home 
again empty." 

You know the beautiful story of the Oriental court- 
ship ; how that the young widow Ruth went into the 
fields of Boaz to glean, and the rich farmer fell in 
love with her. Then followed the marriage, and after 
that a baby boy was born into the family, and then 
the women of the neighborhood all came in to see 
the baby and to suggest a name. They gave the poor 
little, defenseless fellow the ugliest name on the list. 
They called him Obed. But Obed was the father of 
Jesse, and Jesse the father of David, and David the 
father of Solomon. You come right on down the line 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 205 

of royal descent until you find our Lord and Elder 
Brother. 

1. Love seeks companionship. "Entreat me not to 
leave thee, or to return from following after thee ; for 
whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest, 
I will lodge." This is true love. This desire for com- 
panionship forms the very foundation for the happy 
home. This explains the mystery of the girl who 
leaves her own father's home and goes out to live with 
another. It is love desiring companionship. The man 
who wouldn't rather spend his evenings with his wife 
than with a lot of loafers around a store or saloon is 
wrong at heart. His love needs reviving. That is the 
hardest struggle of the evangelist's life — leaving home. 
In my heart there is always a picture of a modest little 
home in Indiana where the old trees bend their cooling 
shadows and the flowers blossom by the door; where 
wife and baby wait for the letters day by day, and 
greet ever and anon the father's return. No amount 
of money received could repay for the yearning for 
companionship of loved ones. It is only the stronger 
call of the Saviour who needs reapers for his whitened 
fields. After all, the companionship of Jesus is a rich 
compensation to us all. When his disciples were 
troubled at the thought of his death and their separa- 
tion from him, he said, "Let not your hearts be trou- 
bled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ... If I 
go, I will come again and receive you unto myself." 
Then again he said, "Lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world." 

2. Love seeks identification. "Thy people shall be 
my people, and thy God my God." This ought to for- 



206 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

ever silence the theory that the mother-in-law is a 
natural enemy. When you marry, you will marry the 
whole family, whether you want to or not, but you 
ought to want to do that very thing. Added ties of 
love, added brothers and sisters. 

The people of God ought to seek to become one 
family. After all, it is largely a question of courtship 
and love. Whenever the churches come to love each 
other as they should, they will find some way to get 
married. If a young man and maiden love each other 
and want to get married, the parents may lock the 
girl in the attic and send the boy across the continent, 
but she will get out -and he will come home and there 
will be a wedding. I am not spending much time 
preaching on the basis of unity, but devoting myself 
largely to the task of bringing the people of God to 
the point where they will love each other so much that 
they can't live separate and be happy. 

3. Love grows tender at the thought of death. 
"Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried." 
When the thought of death comes, there is no room in 
the heart for hard thoughts or selfishness. The hours 
when death hovered over your home were the seasons 
when you were close to God. I was once called into 
a home by a stricken father. He met me at the door, 
and then led me to a darkened corner of the room 
where I bent low over a cradle to catch the breathing 
of an infant, breathing as soft as the rustle of an 
angel's wing. Then he led me into another chamber 
where the white pall was pulled gently back, and I 
saw the face of the mother ; the face chiseled into cold, 
white marble by the hand of death. Down at the 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 207 

gates of life and death the old tragedy had been re- 
enacted, and the one life had been given for the other. 
How tender was the heart of the lonely father. 

So when we think of Jesus' death our hearts grow 
tender toward the dear one who suffered and died for 
us. The suffering, dying Saviour has melted the hard 
hearts of this old world, and men have turned to him 
in tenderest love. There is no way to pay the debt we 
owe, save by love. 

4. Love is sure of its own constancy. "The Lord 
do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part 
thee and me." Love is so weak in many hearts toward 
God that they are never sure about its existence. Ask 
a man as to his political faith and you can hear his 
answer ring out for a block away, but when you sound 
him on his religion, he stammers and falters and says 
he is not sure. We need people of such strong love 
that they make its expression sound to the ends of the 
earth ; men who will prefer to die rather than do 
wrong; men who are proud to proclaim faith in Jesus 
Christ. 

When Jesus stood by the sea that morning and 
asked Peter that question, "Peter, lovest thou me?" 
it was the longing heart of the risen Christ seeking 
an expression of love. And so the Saviour calls to 
you to-night to speak to this multitude of your love. 
If you turn back, your name is lost and your life is 
shorn of its power, but if you turn to this God, giving 
up your idolatry and sin, your name will be written 
in the Lamb's Book of Life and you shall be saved. 




C. J. Sharp. 



208 



C. J. SHARP. 

C. J. Sharp, of Hammond, Ind., the subject of this 
sketch, was born in Hendricks County, Ind., on Oct. 
17, 1876. He is, and always has been, thoroughly a 
Hoosier. He left the farm at the age of eighteen with 
only a common-school education. 

The next eight years of his life were extremely 
busy years, having in that time completed his educa- 
tion by graduating from Chicago University with the 
degree of A.B. He had previously graduated from 
the Tri-State Normal College at Angola. During this 
eight years he not only completed a seven years' 
educational course, but during the same time taught 
two school years in the country schools, served as 
principal of the Angola High School for three years, 
and served as student preacher for the church at 
Hammond for one year. 

Bro. Sharp is now in the tenth year of his pas- 
torate at Hammond. In these ten years he has led the 
Hammond Church from the position of one of the 
weakest in the State to be one of the strong churches 
of the State. He began with six members, but has 
added over twelve hundred : with no church property, 
but now has a $45,000 plant, by far the best of any 
people in the great Calumet vicinity. 

Aside from his own congregation, he has planted 
six other churches of Christ in the Calumet region. 
With a continuous round of money-raising and evan- 
gelizing, he has brought our cause to the forefront in 
this difficult field. He is now president of the Calumet 
Christian Missionary Association, a member of the 

209 



210 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

State Board of the Indiana Christian Missionary Asso- 
ciation, and a member of the National Board of Chris- 
tian Endeavor. 



SERMON XIII. 

THE BIRTHDAY OF A KING. 
(Christmas Sermon.) 
C. J. Sharp. 
"Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty." 

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in 
the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men 
from the east, saying, Where is he that is born King of the 
Jews ?" 

"And Pilate asked, Art thou the King of the Jews? And 
he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it. . . . 

"And he said unto the Jews, Behold your King. . . . 

"And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And 
the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." 

There is nothing so wonderful as a birth. One 
day amid the whirl of spheres a new world was born. 
Scientists tell us that the birth of a world is the occa- 
sion for all the rolling spheres of the universe to bow 
and do it reverence. Man, who aspires to comprehend 
the works of his Maker for ages in his many- 
syllabled science, yet stands only where he did on the 
morning of creation. He can guess, invent terms and 
coin cunning phrases, yet he must close his every sen- 
tence with a question mark over the mystery of a birth. 

Again out from the mysterious hitherwhere there 

comes a newborn life, a human soul ; born we say. 

but whence? And whither bound? When man's wis- 

211 



212 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

dom alone can solve the mystery that hovers over a 
single cradle, we can look with deeper respect upon 
his learned pronouncements touching the perplexing 
problems of a world. 

But it is the birthday not alone of a mortal that 
to-day we consider, but the birthday of a King; yea, 
the King. The world that was born has never offered 
the slightest excuse for its being except as a tem- 
porary home for a creature whose dreams are greater 
than a world, greater than a universe. A half-remem- 
bered dream says he came from God. An all-com- 
prehending desire is that some day he shall go back 
to God, there to be, to live and learn when worlds 
have come to the end of the way in the mighty proces- 
sion of the planets, and their dirge has been sung 
among the spheres in final catastrophe. The birth of 
man for whom the world is made gives room for 
deepest thinking, and yet we pass it all to-day for a 
consideration of the birth of the One among all, the 
greatest of all, the King of men. 

"Give us a king," said the Jews to the prophet of 
old, and their cry has been taken up and echoed 
through the ages. "Give us a king," say men in 
groups large and small. Give us one who can com- 
mand us, lead us, protect us. In finance, in states- 
manship, in enterprise large and small, is ever the cry 
for the king. Strange anomaly this when placed be- 
side the other common cry of men, "Give us liberty 
and freedom." Can it be that these two deep-seated 
desires are after all consistent? Give us a king with 
power to rule, with wisdom infallible to counsel and 
guide, strength to defend against every foe including 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 213 

death, and a purpose only for his subjects' welfare 
and happiness. To-day, though we stand on the top 
of piled-up centuries and though we have gone to 
school to all the years before us, we watch still with 
eagerness for the answer to the old cry, "Give us a 
king !" 

Who shall be the great man, the one commanding 
and towering form of the centuries? Will he be a 
preacher, a statesman, a discoverer, a scientist, an 
inventor, an architect, a conqueror? Whom shall we 
crown? To whom shall we give the palm? 

If he be a preacher — that is, a prophet with a 
message — he must be able to answer to completest 
satisfaction the questions that come out of the deepest 
wells of the human soul. The problems that cover 
time and shake hands with eternity on either hand ; 
he must answer from the standpoint of one who 
knows and does not guess. Could we find such an 
one, we should be inclined to hail him king, crown him 
and beg to follow him. 

Statesmen have ever held high places of esteem and 
honor, and have written their names large in the affairs 
of men and nations. Will the great man of the centuries 
be a statesman? If such an one is to fill the place, 
he must not only rise above every paltry and selfish 
end, but he must be able to establish a world-wide 
rule of all-embracing justice. Let him do that and 
then reach out that he may establish his rule heaven- 
wide where millions of sorrowing hearts, crushed 
beneath guilty oppression, may rise from the graves 
to stand before the bar, there to receive the balm 
of Gilead, from the hand of the great Physician 



214 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

with mercy, justice and reward. Lord, give us such a 
statesman and we shall crown him king. 

Shall the great one be a discoverer? We shall 
hail him with delight, but, to satisfy our souls, he must 
not only show us the way to the frozen unknown 
realms of earth and chart the path to the unknown 
pole, but heart-hunger will rest with none other than 
he who can trace the path to the poles of eternity. 
No one less are we willing to crown as our king. 

Shall the hero of the ages be a scientist, bending 
over his microscope to discover the principle of life? 
Yea, let him find it and then show us the principle 
of eternal life, then indeed shall he be our king. 

Shall the one whom we shall be glad to acclaim 
as king of men and king of kings be an architect, a 
builder? We have waited long. We have seen mag- 
nificent cathedral, resplendent mansion and granite 
pyramid, devised almost with the cunning of a god. 
And yet, O builder ! thy cities and turrets and towers 
fall piece by piece like the block tower of a baby's 
hand, and a pile of dust at last marks the end of thy 
aspiring. When he comes who shall build a mansion 
resplendent, indestructible, eternal, he, though but a 
builder, shall have a claim to be our king. 

In the chronicles of men's achievements the con- 
queror claims many a prominent page. We look and 
long, our hopes rise only to meet monotonous disap- 
pointment. Men have marshaled mighty, trampling 
hosts, have made nations tremble and thrones totter 
only to go down in final defeat, conquered by the con- 
queror of all. The mailed fist is as helpless as a baby 
hand to batter down the gates of the grave. Give us 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 215 

a conqueror who shall triumph over death and cause 
to swing outward the gates of the sepulchre, and to 
him we shall be ready to say, /'Hail, O King!" 

Show us, O thou almighty One, the one, then, in 
whom all the wisdom, grace and power and might 
and dominion of all these kings combine, for he shall 
be King of kings. He whose message will fill the 
hungry souls of men; whose rule shall bring justice 
pure, unerring and eternal ; who shall chart unerringly 
the paths of eternity; who shall build an eternal man- 
sion fit for immortality ; who shall go through the 
gates of death and conquer there, where all have 
failed, and shall bring us life eternal — "to him be 
glory and honor for ever, the King eternal, immortal." 
When He is found, then cease earth's age-long cry, 
turn back the tide of tears, and join in triumph's 
song: "We'll crown Him King of kings and Lord of 
all." Humble may be his birth, but "show us where 
he is to be born that we may worship him." From 
henceforth the earth shall rejoice over the birthday 
of our King. 

Near two thousand years ago, in little Bethlehem, 
a babe was born, innocent, helpless, human. A virgin 
mother's bosom pillowed his head, while with search- 
ing gaze she sought to fathom the mystery of his life. 
O mother, couldst thou have but seen to the depths 
of that life! Around the manger cradle dumb cattle 
lowed, while outside was a world of humanity stagger- 
ing beneath the burden of its weariness ; eyes grown 
red with weeping, hearts grown dumb with hoping. 
But hark! the stillness of the night grows vibrant 
with music ; the darkness flees before a scene of o-lory. 



216 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

An angel's voice breaks forth in song: "Fear not: 
for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this 
day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ 
the Lord. . . . And suddenly there was with the angel 
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and 
saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace, good will toward men." 

Can it be that men yet live whose ears are deaf 
to that song? Men have looked for the cradle of 
liberty, but they only have found it who have found 
the cradle of Bethlehem. 

Yet the cradle is not enough. He came that men 
might walk with him. His journey shall be down 
into the deepest recesses of the hearts of men. "Never 
man spake like this man." When men have stopped 
to listen they have found that he is the Prophet whose 
message shows familiarity with eternity. His lan- 
guage is of that land of which babyhood is a half- 
remembered dream, and toward which old age has 
ever looked and longed. He is the one at whose feet 
the centuries have sat trying to drink in the wisdom 
that fell from his gracious lips. 

Walk with Him, or behold Him as he passes before 
the eyes of the world in the panorama of the cen- 
turies. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; 
he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
preach the acceptable year of the Lord." He is driv- 
ing oppression before Him ; where he has gone, grim 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 217 

Despair has fled in defeat and Hope has broken into 
song. Injustice and War, though stubbornly, yet 
most certainly sound retreat. The clouds are rifted; 
the dark night of ignorance and superstition that has 
hung like a pall, gives way before the light. The seats 
of ancient heathenism totter ; thrones do Him obei- 
sance, and above them all he has builded the eternal 
throne where every wrong shall be righted in all the 
earth and righteousness shall receive its full reward. 
Bring forth the statesman's crown, for he is King of 
all. 

Walk with Him where sin and shame grow side 
by side like the tangled poisons that draw their life 
from bog and fen. Go down to the dens of despair; 
there chains break and souls are free. Go with Him 
where backs bend and hearts break under their weight 
of sin and woe, and behold him bind it all into the 
form of a cross, which he bears for all; the sin and 
woe of a world borne in one mighty burden. 

Look out and away and beyond the crumbling 
palaces of men, and behold a house of many mansions 
which time can not destroy and whose beauty shall 
never fade. 

Go with Him on down to the grave to meet the 
one unconquered foe. O King! thou hast a worthy 
foe. A world's hope, a world's life, is at stake to-day. 
Dark, hovering clouds of fiendish hate thine only 
guard and comfort. Conquer and we live, fail and 
we perish. Centuries have paid their toll in millions 
to thy battleground. The solid phalanx of men since 
time began have marched steadily to defeat before 
thy enemy, death. Thy last enemy is death. The 

(8) 



218 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

proving-ground is the grave. Shall He who has stood 
triumphant over wind and wave, who has weathered 
the fiercer storms of the raging passions of men, he 
whose power broke Lazarus' bonds, shall he who 
brought the world its only right to hope, now go down 
in defeat or come forth triumphant, conqueror? 

The world has rejoiced over the return of its 
heroes. When Augustus and Constantine and Trajan 
and Titus have come back from their battles, what a 
pageant of glory and frenzied applause! Gold-decked 
chariots and silver tumpets ; arches and trophies be- 
fore, chained captives behind, and garlands to deck 
the way. 

Ah! friends, you know the story well. The Son 
of man fought with the conqueror of conquerors. 
Hear again the angel's message : "He is not here, he 
is risen." Hail Him as he comes, the mighty One. 
His foot upon the neck of death. No captives at his 
chariot's wheel ; he has set free those who were cap- 
tives. The grave shall be no longer the goal of the 
mighty marching hosts of men, for "death is swallowed 
up in victory." The grave has been changed into a 
gateway into Glory-land. 

Glory and honor and dominion and kingship ever- 
more are His, for He is King. The builder whose 
work shall not decay ; the One with the message from 
the Maker of men; the One in whose keeping is jus- 
tice evermore ; whose wisdom leads the way through 
darkness unto light; whose power knows no defeat. 
The Prince of peace, the Star of hope, the Sun of 
righteousness, bade a world good morning from the 
manger of Bethlehem. Well may God's angels bear 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 219 

the news and a world redeemed respond in praise. 
"For unto ns a child is born, unto us a son is given ; 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and 
his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of 
the increase of his government and of peace there 
shall be no end, . . . upon his kingdom, to establish 
it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness 
from henceforth even for ever." 

"All hail the power of Jesus' name ! 
Let angels prostrate fall ; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of all." 




J. V. Coombs. 



220 



J. V. COOMBS. 

J. Vincent Coombs was born in Indiana, and spent 
his early days on a farm in the Eel River Valley. 
After completing the course of study in the village of 
New Brunswick, he entered the Academy of Ladoga. 
In 1877 he graduated from the Central Indiana 
Normal School. In 1879 he took a course of training 
in the Philadelphia School of Oratory and Elocution. 
He graduated from the Chicago University in 1882, 
completing the classic course. He entered the profes- 
sion as a teacher, and, after teaching a few years in 
the public schools, he was elected president of the Cen- 
tral Indiana Normal School. 

He was president of East Illinois College for two 
years, and in 1883 became Professor of History and 
Literature in Eureka College. 

Professor Coombs is the author of five books on 
educational subjects. But it is in the lecture field that 
he has won his greatest fame. He entered the lecture 
field in 1886, and has visited every State in the Union. 
Having been a teacher, he is exceedingly popular with 
educators, and has many engagements with colleges 
and institutes. Having crossed the continent eight 
times, he has a national reputation, and last year could 
not fill half of the calls made upon him. A scholar 
and an orator ; his lectures are keen, clear, witty and 
eloquent. Professor Coombs as a speaker is always 
entertaining, and at his will carries his audience from 
tears to laughter. 



221 



SERMON XIV. 

THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF THE 
GOSPEL. 

J. V. Coombs. 

Text. — Rom. i : 16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel 
of Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation to every 
one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." 

The Roman letter is one of the most remarkable 
books in the New Testament. Paul begins this Epistle 
by calling the Romans brethren, and assuring them of 
his love and his constant prayers for them. Then he 
tells them of every mean thing that they had ever 
done. If I would preach a sermon like this one of 
Paul's, I would have empty pews the next service. 

Paul declares that he is not ashamed of the gospel. 
David said, "I am not ashamed to speak before 
kings." Some are afraid to speak for Christ in the 
whirl of society. In using the word "power," Paul 
used the Greek word that means dynamite. Hence 
he affirms that the gospel is the dynamite that is to 
save the world. God has ordained that water must 
quench thirst, that food must appease hunger, and 
that the gospel must save men from their sins. The 
occasion for this expression seemed to have originated 
from the opinion that Paul was afraid to preach in 
Rome. He had expressed a willingness to preach to 
the Romans, but' he said he had been hindered. The 

223 



224 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Romans said to him: "Paul, you may charm the 
effeminate Greeks with your eloquence ; please your 
countrymen, the Jews, with your religious zeal, or 
fascinate the barbarian with your pathos — but you are 
afraid to come here with that little thing, 'The Gospel/ 
and combat the power of Rome. Do you not know 
that we deify power? We glory in our cohorts. Our 
armies have conquered North Africa, penetrated the 
wilderness, gone to the foot-hills of India, and hurled 
the Picts and Scots back to their hiding-places in the 
glens. The whole world reposes in peace to-day under 
the shadows of our eagles." Paul accepted the chal- 
lenge and told them he was willing to pit the power 
of the gospel against their Caesars, for this reason: 
The power that I bring to you is the power of God. 
It is as much greater than your power, than God is 
greater than man. You glory in your Caesars, cohorts 
and legions, but we glory in the power of almighty 
God. But, still more, the power that we bring is the 
power to save. You go to kill, we come to save. 
Where you go there is destruction, crying and sorrow. 
Fields are trampled under the foot of the war-horse 
and gardens are made waste, but where we go, there 
is joy, gladness and peace ; for one of our prophets 
said, "Ye shall go out with joy and be led forth in 
peace." But still further, you have failed in your 
purposes. The fondest hope of every Roman was the 
conquest of the whole world for Caesar. That desire 
is hopeless. Your legions have conquered a small 
strip of territory on northern Africa, but they have 
never gone beyond the desert. You made war on the 
Britons, but the brave Scots and Picts hurled you 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 225 

south of the wall. Your cohorts crossed the blue 
Danube, but the fierce Scythians compelled your army 
to retreat. Your soldiers went to the foot-hills of 
India, but they never scaled the mountains. With 
sword and fire, and torch and fagot, your marshaling 
armies have swept all Europe, but to-night your 
legions are in rebellion in Gaul, and all Germany is like 
a volcano charged with insurrectionary lava, ready 
any moment to burst forth and carry your soldiery 
into ruin. But the power that I bring to you is un- 
limited. It will convert the brave Picts and Scots 
and make them the grandest people on earth. It will 
scale the Himalayan Mountains, soar above your 
eagles, and make the desert blossom as the rose. For 
it is the power of God unto salvation to every creature. 

When Paul had closed this little introduction, he 
had the attention of every Roman. Had he been 
talking to the Persian, he would have talked about 
prowess ; to a Greek, culture ; to a Jew, religion, but 
to a Roman, he used their charming word "power." 
The gospel is the power that will save the nations, 
society and the individual. 

First, let us see the transforming power of the 
gospel upon the nations. The Hottentot, only a few 
years ago, was a term of reproach. He slept in his hut 
or hole in the side of the hill, and crept out at dawn to 
eat the leavings of the lion, or roots of plants ; he 
sold his wife or children at his pleasure. When his 
mother became old, he tied her in the forest, and left 
her to be eaten by the beasts of the wilderness. Eng- 
land wanted to Christianize them by teaching them 
the arts — how to build houses, plant corn, raise 



226 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

gardens. She failed. Then she said, we will educate 
them, after which we will teach them the gospel. 
They took Africanus,'the chief of the tribe, to Eng- 
land, and taught him to read and write, wear citizen's 
clothes and to be polite. When he returned to his 
tribe he found his men were in war with another 
tribe. He threw off his citizen clothes, donned the 
garb of a warrior, went to battle, conquered his foe, 
split open his head, drank blood out of the skull, and 
fastened his teeth into the quivering heart of his 
enemy. That was all that education did for him. 
Livingstone said, "We will try God's plan, and teach 
him the gospel." When poor Africanus saw the 
beauty and mercy of the teachings of Jesus, he cried: 
"O God, have mercy upon this poor sinner." He be- 
came as docile as a child, and led his tribe to Jesus. 
They now are a regenerated people, living in good 
houses, caring for their children and living godly 
lives. Social reform, education or the arts could not 
have transformed these Hottentots. The gospel is the 
power to save men and nations. Charles Darwin had 
a theory that man was a development. There was, 
however, a missing link. Mr. Darwin went to the 
Tierra del Fuego Islands. Here he found a being 
low down in the animal kingdom. Darwin said : "This 
is not a man, it is not a beast. It is my missing link." 
Sad for the theory of Darwin, the missionary went to 
the Fuegans, and twenty years after, when Mr. Dar- 
win went to the islands, he found his missing link 
wearing good clothes, living in fine houses and obe- 
dient to the law. Mr. Darwin said: "I can not accept 
your doctrine of Christ, but any system that can do 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 227 

this for humanity has my support. There is my 
check for five thousand dollars." He died a sub- 
scriber to the missionary fund. 

Dr. March relates the following strange piece of 
history. He says that three missionaries on a war- 
ship arrived at the South Sea Islands. They saw mul- 
titudes of naked barbarians dancing around their war- 
fires. The ship would not land. The missionaries, 
with their Bibles upon their heads, swam ashore and 
cast their lot among twenty thousand cannibals. 
Whenever they caught a white man he was put into 
the boiling-pot and was eaten as they celebrated the 
event. There was not one yard of cloth in the island 
of twenty thousand people. Children were murdered 
by parents, and the aged were buried alive to get 
them out of the way. The greatest hero in the tribe 
was he who had killed the most men. When these 
naked cannibals met in the solitary places, they 
savagely -looked upon each other as a lion looks upon 
its prey. The missionaries taught these cannibals the 
power of the gospel. They accepted the teachings of 
Jesus. In twenty years there was not one cannibal in 
the entire island. Children were trained in truth and 
justice, and the aged mother was taken to the home 
of the son or daughter to be cared for. Dr. March 
says they were a transformed people. You could 
hang a bag of gold upon a limb of a tree and no one 
would touch it but the owner. They were a truthful 
and honest people. Nothing but the transforming 
power of the gospel would have made this wonderful 
change. Law, regulation and restriction may better the 
condition of society, but the gospel will transform it. 



228 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Near Amoy, in China, a farmer cultivated a few 
acres of ground that he had inherited from his ances- 
tors. He was addicted to the opium habit. He sold 
a rod of his farm here, and two rods there, until he 
saw that he could not support his family longer on 
this contracting farm. He was balancing in his mind 
whether he would sell his wife and children or commit 
suicide. He could find no sale for his wife. He 
decided to go to the ocean and commit suicide. As 
he passed along the street, contemplating self-destruc- 
tion, he heard the missionary telling the story of the 
Christ. He paused and listened. He took hope. He 
went back and slept on the ground that night, wonder- 
ing why this story had such a mysterious influence 
over him. He came back again, accepted the Christ, 
and hastened home to tell his friends. When the 
missionaries went back in the mountains to see what 
their convert was doing, they found eleven churches 
organized. They had regular preaching and native 
preachers. 

A missionary was walking the streets of Amoy, 
China. He saw a man climb upon a little hill and 
begin to talk to the people. Asking who he was, 
he was told that he was a story-teller, a man that 
went about to learn a new story and then tell it for 
remuneration. He was much like one of our elocu- 
tionists, whom we pay to make mouths at us. At 
once he said, "I will tell him the story of the Christ." 
Calling a converted Chinaman into his tent, he said, 
"I have a good story to tell you about one Jesus that 
lived a long time ago." He then told him the story 
of the Christ. When he finished the story he said to 



... THE INDIANA PULPIT 229 

the Chinaman, "Can you tell this story?" Depending 
entirely upon memory, of course, he could tell it. 
After repeating it to him, he said, "Go back and tell 
this to your friends in the mountains." He went 
two hundred miles into the mountains to tell the 
story. When he arrived in the village at night, he 
woke up a friend and said, "I have a great story to 
tell you about a man that lived far away, a long time 
ago." He then told the story to his friend. The next 
night five came to hear it ; then ten came ; now twenty. 
They made a small shelter where now a hundred came 
to hear about Jesus. They listened till midnight, and 
went home to talk it all over. They sent down to 
Amoy for the life of the man Jesus; they learned to 
read the story. When the missionary went into the 
valley to see what the convert had done, he found him 
meeting on the first day of the week to break bread. 
They were far advanced in Christian living. They 
gave up lying and stealing. Dr. March says : "They 
were keeping the ordinances as well as we. They 
had fifty churches properly constituted. When a mis- 
sionary made a trip through this country, he baptized 
seventy-five people." Again it was the trans forming- 
power of the gospel that saved these people. 

The gospel is the power to save the individual as 
well as the nation and society. Knowles Shaw had an 
appointment to preach at Hamilton, O. When he 
came to the Miami River, all boats had been put up 
for the night. Down at the water's edge he found 
a drunken oarsman lying in a stupor in his boat. Shaw 
woke him and said, "Can you take me across the 
river?" "That is my business, boss." Shaw saw he 



230 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

was very drunk, but Shaw had strong arms and he 
risked the voyage. In the middle of the river, Shaw 
said to the man, "What is your. name?" "Blue Dick," 
was the reply. "But tell me, what is your correct 
name?" "If I ever had any other name, people do 
not use it now." "I will preach over there to-night; 
come and hear me." To the amazement of all, and 
the humiliation of many, Blue Dick came to hear this 
man of God. Shaw went back and greeted him and 
asked him to return. This greatly annoyed some of 
the elect. The next night poor Blue Dick came near 
the front. Shaw greeted him again. Some of the 
brethren said to him, "If you are not careful, that 
foolish fellow will come forward at the invitation." 
"I would to God that he might come," was the quick 
reply. "If he does, it will kill the meeting." "Then 
let the meeting die." The next night Dick made the 
confession and Knowles 'Shaw baptized him. Several 
years after this occurrence, he returned to Hamilton. 
Who met him this time? Not Blue Dick, but Brother 
George Meyers, the husband of a good wife and the 
father of intelligent children, and yet this was he who 
a few years ago was called "Blue Dick." He became 
an active member in one of the Indianapolis churches. 
I was in a meeting in a Western town. I saw a 
wife lead a miserable man into the hall. He was 
almost idiotic with drink. When I gave the invitation, 
he came forward, staggering as he came. I thought 
I would let him sit down and not take his confession, 
but as he reached out his hand he said, "Do you think 
Jesus can save a poor wretch like me?" I hesitated 
no longer. The next day I saw him buried with his 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 231 

Lord in baptism. The man became an officer in the 
church. Some foolish people would say that this was 
a miraculous conversion. I say that it was the trans- 
forming power of the gospel. 

Who has not heard the story of Fool Sam, so 
wonderfully told by Dr. Conwell? Fool Sam was a 
colored boy in Virginia that could not learn A from 
B. He went to Oxford, Ga., still unable to learn A 
from B. One day a preacher said, "Jesus loves 
everybody and wants all to be saved." Fool Sam 
spoke out in meeting, "Does Jesus love me?" "Yes, 
and he will save you." "Then I am w r orth something 
and I will love him." He became a Christian. His 
latent faculties began to expand. He graduated in 
Peabody University. In 1877 the President of the 
United States appointed him Minister to Liberia, not 
as Fool Sam, but as Hon. J. F. Hoskins. He became 
one of the editors of Blackford's Magazine, and one 
of the Missionary Board of the M. E. Church in South 
Africa. It was the transforming power of the gospel 
that wrought this change. 

The gospel is the only power that we possess to 
save -the world. There is no other gospel save the 
gospel of Christ that will transform the dens of vice. 
We need not try to redeem the world any other way. 
In Jesus, God has said all that he has to say on the 
scheme of redemption. The apostles told us how to 
preach this gospel, which is the power of God unto 
salvation to every creature. The New Testament is 
God's expressed will to man. Leave off preaching 
theories, speculations and philosophies, and preach the 
everlasting gospel. Sometime ago a lecturer in Boston 



232 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

said, 'The greatest delusion in the world is Chris- 
tianity." Is it a delusion? Go down the aisles of 
yonder church, and on either side I will show you 
men who were once debased, depraved and vicious. 
This gospel has taken hold of them, and made them 
good husbands, loving fathers and noble citizens. 
If that be a delusion, we need more of it. Who are the 
deluded? Each Tuesday morning 220 physicians in 
London meet for an hour of prayer. The best medical 
intellect of the world is worshiping the Christ. Every 
Supreme Judge of the United States acknowledges 
Jesus as Lord. Judge Jeremy Black, James A. Gar- 
field, and the men who have blessed the world, have 
been Christians. 

Jesus says, "I am the way." He will lead us. "I 
am the truth." He will educate us. "I am the life." 
He will save us. If we have the Christ that will lead 
us, educate us and save us, we need no other prophet 
or prophetess. Jesus and the apostles gave us a per- 
fect plan of salvation. If perfect, nothing can be 
added. Jesus not only gave us truth, but all moral 
truth. No teacher, philosopher nor critic has ever 
given the world one single moral truth. Who will 
try to state one single spiritual truth that is not found 
in the teaching of this wonderful Teacher? Back to 
the historic Christ, who spake as never man spake. 
Back to him who died for us, but now sits in glory. 
Back to him who said, "The heavens and the earth 
shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away." 

Be still, listen, and hear the great Teacher say, 
"Hear these sayings of mine," and the Spirit of God 
echo, "Hear ye him." 




Commodore W. Cauble. 



234 



COMMODORE W. CAUBLE. 

Commodore W. Cauble was born near Salem, 
Washington Co., Ind. He taught two terms in the 
district school, and at the age of twenty-one entered 
the College of the Bible at Lexington, Ky. 

He graduated with the class of 1899, and preached 
one year for the church at Dyersburg, Tenn. In the 
fall of 1900 he entered Indiana University at Bloom- 
ington, and received his master's degree in the Phi- 
losophy Department in June, 1903. 

He was in the Divinity School of Harvard Univer- 
sity during the year 1903 and 1904. While a student 
at Bloomington, he preached for the church at 
Orleans, and while at Harvard he preached for the 
little church at Manton, R. I. 

On Oct. 1, 1904, he began a four years' pastorate 
at Greencastle, Ind. In the winter of 1908 he spent 
four months in Egypt, Palestine and southern Europe. 
He held a short pastorate with the Sixth Church, 
Indianapolis, and reluctantly gave up that work to go 
to his present field. He has been pastor at Martins- 
ville since Nov. 1, 1909. 

He is president of Bethany Assembly, and gives 
freely of his time and energy to the brotherhood in 
that important work. 



235 



SERMON XV. 

MAN'S GREATEST DISCOVERY. 
Commodore W. Cauble. 

Text. — John I : 41 : "We have found the Christ." 

We are living to-day in an age of invention and 
discovery. Things are coming to pass now as never 
before in the world's history. Within the memory 
of a great many in this audience practically all of the 
discoveries of modern science have been made. To 
many of us the inventions and discoveries of our own 
generation seem to be the greatest aids to the progress 
of our advancing civilization. Were you asked to 
name what you consider to be man's greatest dis- 
covery, what would be your answer? If you are not 
sure of your reply, I shall be glad to have you hear 
me to the end. 

Early in the first Christian century, Jesus heard 
that his cousin (John) was preaching in the wilder- 
ness of Judea and baptizing in the river Jordan. He 
left his home in Nazareth, and was soon listening to 
the great reformer. His presence was quickly dis- 
covered. The word was passed along that the ex- 
pected Messiah was in the neighborhood. John was 
anxious for his disciples to see Him. As he was 
talking to two of them one morning, Jesus passed by. 
John pointed to hm and said: "Behold, the Lamb of 
God!" The young men were anxious to satisfy their 

237 



238 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

own minds, so they followed the stranger and talked 
with him. We know the result of that conversation, 
for, in a little while, one of them, whose name was 
Andrew, ran to his brother Peter and said, "We have 
found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the 
Christ." 

I believe this is the announcement of the most 
important discovery ever made by a human being. 
"We have found the Christ." These words are 
prophetic. They throb with a divine expectancy. 
When we ponder them, visions rise up before us, for 
this was only the beginning of Andrew's discovery. 
In fact, at this time he had found but little of the real 
Christ. He had but a dim vision of His divine char- 
acter. He soon found Him anew in the Sermon on 
the Mount. Christ grew larger and more powerful 
to the early disciples as they saw him heal the sick, 
forgive the sinner, and preach good tidings to the 
poor. This discovery was a continuous and a never- 
ending process. The cross, the block, the stake, then 
as now, revealed the power of the resurrection. 

It is a happy day in every man's life when he 
begins to discover Christ ; when he sees in Jesus what 
every man should be ; when he decides to make the 
great Teacher his ideal and his goal. This is com- 
monly called conversion, but it is only the beginning 
of that important process. It is but the springtime 
of Christian character. Then we are just beginning 
to know him. Life, conflict, defeat and victory — all 
lie before us. Uniting with the church is but the 
alphabet of religion. The study is exhaustless. We 
never graduate from the school of the great Teacher. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 239 

The whole of his truth has never been comprehended 
by mortal mind. The apostles were satisfied with 
being called learners. They regarded the Christian 
journey one of increasing opportunity and endless dis- 
covery. Paul said, "My desire is to know Christ and 
the power of his resurrection." Yet we hear him say, 
near the close of his own life, "Christ is past finding 
out." If you would know Christ, you must walk with 
him in sunshine and in shadow, you must go with him 
to the mountain peak, and bow with him in the garden. 
You may have to carry your cwn cross to Calvary. 
but wherever your pathway leads, he will go with 
you if you will let him. 

Have we made this discovery? Have we found 
the Christ? This is man's greatest opportunity, for 
in Jesus, the Son, God the Father revealed the accu- 
mulated glories of the universe, the essential oneness 
of God and man, and the simplicity of the Christian 
religion. To be truly human is to be divine. God is 
like man, and man, at his best, is like God. Christ 
Jesus is the most complete expression of God's 
thought and the most perfect utterance of his love 
known to the world. In him is revealed all that God 
is and all that man should be. Christ is God's richest 
gift emptied into the soul of humanity, enriching and 
enlarging man that he may become more and more 
like God. 

We can be no more than we permit Christ to be 
to us. Character without him will not weather the 
storms of this trying age. Have we made this dis- 
covery? Have we found the Saviour? I do not want 
to strike a sad chord, but I must confess that when I 



240 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

come face to face with this question, I feel ashamed 
of myself and of my race. If we all knew Christ as 
we should know him, what a different world this 
would be. There would be no strikes, for the labor 
problems would be solved. There would be no drunk- 
enness, no theft, no murder, no divorce, no war. 
Revolutions that are disrupting society would cease, 
and the principles for which Christ died would reign 
in the hearts of men. Christ is, and of right ought to 
be, the King of the whole world. He is more than 
we have suspected. His salvation is better than the 
church has dreamed of. He can cure every ailment 
of society, and solve all the perplexing problems of 
the twentieth century, and of all the centuries yet to 
come. 

A few years ago I heard Dr. Charles W. Eliot 
speak to a Boston audience on "The Hope of the 
World." Of course it was a great address. In part, 
he said: "Education, good as it is, will not save the 
world, for the simple reason that you will find edu- 
cated men on every side of every public question." 
""Culture," he continued, "will not save the world, for 
every strata of society breeds its own peculiar vice." 
He concluded by saying, "The unifying force and the 
uplifting power of Jesus and his gospel are our only 
ultimate hope." Christ and his gospel can save the 
world, for they will supply the instructive and the 
deepest needs of the human heart. Man has needs 
that must be supplied. At his best he is a religious 
bjeing, craving fellowship with a higher power. He is 
the only upward-looking animal on this earth. Man 
must have a God. When asked why he was religious, 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 241 

August Sabatier answered: "I am religious because I 
can not help it." He said at another time: "I am 
religious because I am a man and do not care to be 
less than human, and because humanity, in me and in 
my race, commences and completes itself in religion 
and by religion. I am a Christian because I can not 
be religious in any other way, and because Christianity 
is the most perfect religion in this world." Christ 
is the all and in all. Religion is the highest power 
of all the free activities of the soul, and its goal is 
the desire to discover and the will to obey. But the 
flower will not grow until the seed is planted, and it 
must be cultivated well if the best results are obtained. 

Jesus Christ came to the world to sow new seed. 
He brought a new religion to this earth. He cared 
nothing for the formalities of his generation. He 
looked into the hearts of men and enquired into their 
life's purpose. He came that we might have life and 
have it more abundantly. Those who have learned 
how to love God as Father, and to deal with their 
neighbors as they would have neighbors deal with 
them, know something of the mission of the Master. 
Many men to-day do not know the Saviour, for they 
prefer darkness rather than light. Many have not 
made the great discovery, because their deeds are evil. 

If our civilization is to be Christian in reality, as 
it is now in name, Christ must have a more prominent 
place than is given to him in the affairs of men to-day. 
He must be discovered and rediscovered until his 
power is felt in every department of human activity. 

We need more of God's Christ in the affairs of 
men. We need to feel his heart-throbs in our hearts 



242 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and his inspiration for human service. Let me say, 
first, that the individual must find Christ. Christ is 
God's idea of a man. He is the divine prophecy of 
the perfect humanity into which every man may grow. 
He, and he alone, can satisfy our deepest needs. The 
heart of man is a great, restless, swerving, hungry 
ocean. Nothing that man sees or handles satisfies 
him. He is a bundle of longings, aspirations, hopes 
and fears. It has been said: "If you make a man a 
councilman, he wants to be mayor; if he is mayor, 
he wants to go to Congress. Send him to Congress, 
and he wants a seat in the upper house, and then he 
expects his friends to say he is capable of sitting in 
the White House." Carlisle said: "Man's unhappi- 
ness is a result of his greatness. It is because the 
infinite in him can not be supplied with the finite. ,, 
We are trying to satisfy the spiritual with the mate- 
rial. We are spending our money for that which is 
not bread. In our wonderful industrial prosperity, we 
have forgotten that man is a living soul. We need 
to hear again the cry of Augustine : "Thou hast made 
us for thyself, and our heart is restless till it finds 
rest in thee." Many have forgotten their individuality, 
and have lost themselves in the multitude. They are 
comparing themselves with themselves, and judging 
themselves by themselves, as they all travel the broad 
road together. What a field for discovery! For the 
discovery of the better self and the inspirer of all 
true life! What a happy day for every man when 
his conscience awakes and he sees in Christ a friend 
and a Saviour who is worthy of his entire love, con- 
fidence and trust. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 243 

But it is not enough for the individual to find 
Christ. The church must rediscover him. The church 
must see in him a more sufficient Saviour. He de- 
serves a more prominent place than is given to him 
by most churches to-day. He is anxious to lead his 
church to victory, but some are saying the work of 
the church will soon be done, and the kingdom of God 
will come to this earth over a secular road. O church 
of Christ, it is time to awake ! You have in your 
keeping numberless souls. You are the most im- 
portant institution in the world to-day ! It is your 
duty to set men free, to break the fetters of supersti- 
tion, to give this dark earth light, and to make Christ 
the world's King. Your mission is to serve humanity. 
Your ultimate goal is the establishment of the king- 
dom of God in all the earth. You are the world's 
greatest servant. But your work is lagging because 
your workers, indifferent and divided, are misplacing 
the emphasis. Many are asking to-day, How may we 
save our church? If you would save your church, 
lose it in service. If all who love Christ would listen 
to his heart-throbs a few hours each day, it would 
not be long until we would find that he is much more 
concerned with building up the kingdom and right- 
eousness in the earth, than he is with our petty 
denominational difficulties. If you would understand 
the nature of the ideal church, go to the writings of 
the apostle Paul. In genius and in consecration, in 
passion and in power, no man, during the long roll 
of the centuries, has written his name as high as the 
apostle to the Gentiles. When we first see him he is 
leading an opposition against the church. One day, 



244 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

while his hand was uplifted, ready to strike a little 
band of worshipers, Paul heard Jesus say, "Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me?" On that day Paul learned 
two important lessons. He learned that Jesus was 
not dead, but living. He learned that to persecute 
the church was to persecute the Christ. From that 
day until the day of his death, he never tired of pro- 
claiming the risen Christ as both King and Lord, and 
His church as the divine institution through which 
eternal salvation should be offered to the world. He 
was instant in season and out of season, always labor- 
ing zealously for Christ and his church. He never 
lost sight of the heavenly vision, the reign of Christ 
in all the earth. If the church could rediscover the 
Christ that Paul knew, and if we could take to our 
work that earnest, rational enthusiasm that he had, 
the Lord's prayer for a united army would soon be 
consummated, and God would reign in a united church. 
Then the world would know Christ. 

One more word must be said. As things are 
to-day, it is not enough for the individual and the 
church to follow Christ. The different units of society 
must know him. We are depending upon one another 
as never before. We are "bound together" and "tied 
in" with friend and foe. Professor Roswell states 
this modern social situation. He says : "Nowadays the 
water main is my well ; the trolley car, my carriage ; 
the banker's safe, my old stocking; the policeman's 
billy, my fist. I let the meat trust butcher my pig. 
the oil trust mold my candles, the sugar trust boil my 
sorghum, and the coal trust cut my wood. My own 
eyes, nose and judgment I defer to the inspector of 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 245 

foods and drugs." Thank Heaven for our good Dr. 
Wiley ! 

The institutions of men must be saved from sin. 
Our homes, our schools, our factories, our commerce, 
our politics, our industries, need Christ as surely as 
each man needs him. The principles of the Christ- 
life must be the principles of the market-place and the 
drawing-room. Whatever was wrong in the individual 
is wrong in a corporation, a stock exchange and a 
church. We can not have two standards of conduct. 
We can not be Christians in our own private life, and 
steal from a company, a corporation or a trust be- 
cause they are big concerns and far removed from us. 
Whatever is wrong for us as a private individual is 
wrong for us as a public servant. Thank God, we 
are getting a social conscience. 

A final word as to the outlook. The hope of Christ 
is to make man in his image, earth like heaven, and 
the kingdoms of this world the kingdom of our God. 
While we are not making the rapid progress we 
should, I believe our faces are in the right direction, 
and we are gaining ground. It matters not what field 
of activity you enter, you will find that Jesus Christ 
is the most powerful being in the world to-day. We 
are discovering Christ, and with him solving the 
greatest problem of the ages — the problem of human 
life. The word "life" for all living creatures never 
meant so much as it means to-day. When Jesus began 
his public ministry, life consisted, for the most part, 
in keeping the traditions of the fathers. Their eyes 
were adjusted to gnats, and they could not see camels. 
Man had long since been forgotten in a desire to keep 



246 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

the letter of the law. Jesus laid down one principle 
that is redeeming humanity. Here it is : human life 
is more divine than ritual law. The Sabbath was 
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath Man 
is greater than the temple. 

A glance back over the centuries makes one's 
blood run cold. For many years the Christ ideal was 
nearly or completely lost. In the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries most men, like fixtures, belonged to 
the soil, and could be bought and sold in the open 
market. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the 
peasant was as ignorant as the ox he drove. Less 
than three hundred years ago two Englishmen and a 
Welshman were hanged in Hyde Park, London, for 
preaching against the Established Church. 

But there is a better day coming. Yes, we are 
living in the morning of that day. We are finding 
the Christ that is to be — the Christ of a redeemed 
manhood and a united church. God, through Christ, 
became like man, that man, through Christ, might 
become like God the Father. What a gracious privi- 
lege! 




James Calvin Burkhardt. 



248 






JAMES CALVIN BURKHARDT. 

James Calvin Burkhardt was born on a farm near 
Tipton, Ind. He was educated in Butler College, from 
which he graduated in 1897. His first ministry was in 
Indianapolis, where he preached for five years. The 
next ministries were at Lexington, Waveland, Wayne- 
town, Union, and country churches in Tipton and 
Montgomery Counties. The longest pastorate he has 
held was at Connersville, where he remained for seven 
years and nine months, in which time the church con- 
structed one of the best church buildings in the State, 
a modern parsonage was also built, and eleven hun- 
dred members were received into the fellowship of 
the church. He is now located at Frankfort, Ind., in 
his second year. 



(9) 249 



SERMON XVI. 

THE LIOX OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH. 

J. C. BURKHARDT. 

Judah was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. The 
first years of their married life were very bitter to 
Leah, because her husband loved another. Two sons 
were born out of this bitterness. When the third son 
came, Leah saw her husband was beginning to turn 
unto her, and when the fourth son was born, the 
mother's heart was full of gladness, and she named 
the child Judah, which means praise. This boy be- 
came a favorite of his father, who in his dying 
moments gave the lad an unusual blessing, and con- 
cluded with the following prophecy : "Thou art he 
whom thy brethren shall praise. . . . The sceptre 
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from 
between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him 
shall the gathering of the people be." 

When the family of Jacob went into the land of 
Egypt, the tribe of Judah was represented by three 
families and two side lines. After the bondage, it. was 
found, at the first numbering of Moses, that Judah 
had multiplied more rapidly than the other tribes, and 
had at this first count an army of 74,600 fighting 
men. In the location of the camp about the taber- 
nacle, Judah was given nearest place. This tribe like- 
wise led in the first attack on the Canaanites. Soon 

251 



252 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

after Joshua's death, Benjamin revolted and threw 
the tribes into civil war. Every man held back, 
hesitating to take up arms against a brother. Judah 
was divinely chosen to open battle. In the division 
of Canaan, Judah was given a choice portion in the 
south, including both hill-country and valleys, and also 
thirty-eight cities. Judah held the same commanding 
place among the confederacy of Jewish tribes as that 
held among the Grecian states at Athens. 

The glory of a nation, however, is not in its size 
or soil, not in its location or its armies. The glory of 
a nation is in its men. Greece was but an insignificant 
promontory ; Athens was but a rocky eminence. The 
valleys of Italy were more fertile. The coast of Asia 
Minor was as favorably situated. But Homer and 
Phidias made Greece great. The heroes of Greek 
fiction bred heroic men to block Thermopylae's pass. 
Nothing can be substituted for manhood, for nothing 
is of equal value. If nations boast of men, the little 
hill-country of Judah is ready with its challenge. No 
country, however large, and no land, however en- 
lightened, can compare with this tribe in men. 

Judah, the founder of the tribe, was possessor of 
many excellent qualities. While the rashness of youth 
led him to advise the sale of Joseph to the Midianites, 
nothing is sweeter in the literature of the race than 
the appeal he makes to his aged father, in pledging his 
own life for the safe return of Joseph's brother. In- 
firm and spirit-broken by the loss of the favorite son, 
Jacob defies any suggestion of danger to the dearly 
beloved Benjamin. Take the child into Egypt? 
Though helpless from old age and weakened by 



THE IX DIANA PULPIT 253 

famine, the determination of younger days leaps into 
his heart. He chooses hunger; Benjamin shall not 
go. Against such resoluteness only the noblest heart 
can speak. Judah answered out of the depths of 
his soul. His answer carried his heart with it. He 
pledged his life for Benjamin's return. The father's 
resolution was met by the son's manliness. It was 
enough; Jacob's fear for Benjamin was conquered 
by Judah's pledge of sacrifice. If there is nothing 
else to commend this Hebrew, this is much. 

David, the shepherd king, was of the tribe of 
Judah. Here is Israel's greatest warrior. The record 
of his military prowess says he slew tens of thousands. 
He also gathered great gold and silver, equivalent to 
more than one hundred and nine millions of dollars on 
an average each year of his forty years' reign. He 
added to this, unmeasured quantities of brass, iron, 
stone and timber. All this he left as a gift for the 
construction of the temple. David was a warrior, and 
was liberal beyond any, even the philanthropists of 
to-day. He was likewise a poet and a singer of un- 
equaled ability, yet the best thing history has ever 
recorded of him was that his soul was knit to Jonathan. 
All the deeds of war, and all the other relations of 
his life, are eclipsed by this friendship for the king's 
son. Here he struck bed-rock. How many times was 
he false to his God, and found it necessary to repent ! 
How often was he humbled ! But to Jonathan he 
was absolutely true. He swore his life to a friend, 
and this friendship is a household word to-day. 
Twentieth-century men know the lad who herded 
sheep on the hills of Judea three thousand years ago 



254 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

better than they know many of the statesmen who 
live in the present age. The great mass of men are in 
need of nothing so much to-day as the friendship of 
kindred man. The majority are fully conscious of the 
love of Christ, but wait to have revealed unto them 
the love of their fellows. 

Other illustrious ones who sprang from the loins 
of Judah are Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, 
Daniel, Hezekiah, Zerubbabel, Othniel and John the 
Baptist. Obadiah, Joel, Nahum, Zephaniah and 
Habakkuk probably belong to this same tribe. These 
make up a list of men which, for rugged character 
and achievements under difficulties, can not be dupli- 
cated by any nation. Some of these are men whom 
persecution could not daunt, bribery buy, nor obstacles 
discourage. Many of them lifted the world up on 
their own dead bodies that, perchance, it might get 
the vision they clearly saw. 

But the glory of Judah is the son of Mary, the 
Lion of the tribe. He received this appellation, no 
doubt, on account of his kingliness. This feature of 
his life and ministry was all the more remarkable since 
nothing in his environment gave promise of a king. 
His birth was in poverty, with all the attendant ob- 
stacles and discouragements. He belonged to a 
village which attached disgrace and gave no prestige. 
His parents were subjects of a despot. He had no 
great teachers and no inclination toward arms. His 
race was rich in history, but the mold of greatness 
had been broken. In his first public discourse he 
compares his authority with the authority of the 
rabbis and the law, and speaks as no other man ever 



THE INDIANA PULPIT ' 255 

spoke. It was a claim to pre-eminence that the scribes 
could not brook. 

Something in the person of Christ showed his 
kingliness to those who were able to detect nobleness. 
One glance of the child when but forty days old re- 
vealed to Simeon the Messiah. The light for which 
dying men look was furnished Simeon by the babe 
in the young mother's arms. Some have criticized 
Him for the high claims he made. Before he ever 
gave hint of his regal character in words, the Wise- 
men from the East, Simeon, and John the Baptist — all 
had declared his kingly nature. He found the claim 
to pre-eminence in the quality of his life. 

Any one can make claims. Jesus was noble. His 
every act possessed a kingly bearing. Alone on the 
mountain or thronged by thousands, in Perea or in 
Jerusalem, teaching the disciples or addressing the 
Sanhedrin, at the hospitable home of Martha or tor- 
tured on the cross, his every act bears the stamp of 
royalty. Barriers that had forbidden progress through 
centuries were overcome by him before he reached 
the age of twelve years. Born of a race that hated all 
others, his love reached to the ends of the earth and 
included even his enemies. The Jews through genera- 
tions were hardening in legalism ; he became the 
earth's greatest teacher of spiritual things. The world 
has not yet come up to the standards he set in mercy, 
justice, love and purity. 

In His temptation the struggles of a life were con- 
centrated into one hour, and that hour one of weak- 
ness, yet he was easily Master. He used a super- 
natural power for the aid of man, but fought his own 



256 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

conflicts through disdaining to use extraordinary 
power to his advantage. Alone, tempted and weak, he 
revealed to men both their possible strength and their 
real weakness. 

Jesus was a paradox. He was poor, yet heir of 
all things ; he was the world's greatest teacher, yet 
never was taught ; he was crucified in shame, yet in his 
death glorified men; he was put to death, yet showed 
himself alive ; he died that men might live ; he was 
made sacrifice for sin who knew no sin ; he was Son 
of man, yet Son of God; he lost his life, yet saved it; 
with his stripes we are healed. 

That he had a vision of the race beyond that of 
any other, none will doubt. Where he secured that 
vision has been a question for the ages. His own 
explanation of his life and ministry is really the only 
one that has ever been given. Other kings have re- 
ceived their thrones from ancestors and from the 
fortunes of war. He alone has merited the right to 
his claim. However much it may be questioned 
whether the kingdoms of this world will ever be 
given over to him, it can not be doubted that he has 
paid the full price. 

But the greatness of the Lion of the tribe lies not 
only in that he established his right to kingship, but 
in the method in which he did it. By precept and 
parable, miracle and example, great multitudes had 
been drawn to him. He had pointed out the evils of 
legalism ; he had uncovered the truth in his teaching ; 
he had compromised nothing; no pains had been 
spared, and all his strength had been given ; the 
country had been crossed and recrossed; in every 



THE INDI/NA PULPIT 257 

village he had taught and healed ; he had spoken as 
freely to the publican as to the Pharisee, to the harlot 
as to the priests ; the poor had the gospel preached 
unto them ; his ministry had been performed faith- 
fully. But there were few followers. The Master 
had a passion for all. One lost coin, one lost sheep, 
one lost son, were for him subjects for parables. 
With Jesus it was not the most good to the most 
people, but it was the highest good to all people. That 
he might reach all, he chose to die. He had studied 
husbandry, and noted that some of the seed cast into 
the ground brought forth an hundred-fold. The uni- 
versal law of the harvest was that the grain gathered 
exceeded the seed sown. "Except a "grain of wheat 
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." Jesus 
learned that death liberated life. In the field each living 
stalk of grain stood as a monument over the grave of 
the dead seed. Knowing that he could liberate men by 
his death, he planted his life. The compulsion of his 
love drove him to die even for his enemies. It was 
with difficulty that he gave Judas up. After he knew 
that the traitor had laid his plot, the Master still clung 
to him and sat with him at supper. The Lord's desire 
for all his enemies must have been the same as for 
Judas. On the cross his first word was for them. Shall 
we not say that the potency of the cross drew many 
to him? The great audience which Peter addressed 
as "crucifiers of the Christ" furnished three thousand 
people for the church. The harvesting began fifty days 
after the planting. The method by which he chose 
to lift himself to the throne was death. He has been 
coronated King of kings and Lord of lords. In char- 



258 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

acter, in service, in sacrifice, in love, in devotion to 
friend and foe, he stands in solitude unapproached 
and unapproachable. He is the Son of God, he is the 
Son of man. 

Judah pledged his life for a brother, David for a 
friend. Christ gave his life for his enemies. He is 
the Lion of the tribe. Judah never lost his power and 
authority. The scepter passed into the hand of the 
King. 




Z. T. Sweeney. 



260 



Z. T. SWEENEY. 

Z. T. Sweeney is a native of Kentucky. His 
parents were G. E. Sweeney and Talitha Campbell. 

His first charge was at Paris, 111. He was, for a 
short while, minister of the First Church at Augusta, 
Ga. 

For twenty-seven years he was the minister of the 
Columbus (Ind.) Tabernacle Church. For this church 
he held twenty-two protracted meetings. It is esti- 
mated that under his ministry thirty-six hundred 
persons were added to the congregation. 

He has conducted a number of meetings in our 
leading cities. He has dedicated hundreds of churches. 
As a lecturer he stands easily in the front ranks. At 
present he is employed by the Redpath Lyceum 
Bureau of Boston. Under the administration of Har- 
rison he was made Consul-General to Turkey, with 
headquarters in Constantinople. He has visited 
Europe and the Holy Land, and has given us an in- 
tensely interesting book on his travels. He believes 
in the old Book, and, with his powers of eloquence, 
logic, knowledge of human nature and thorough ac- 
quaintance with literature, he makes the people to 
believe too. 

He is an elder of the Tabernacle Church, also 
pastor emeritus. 



261 



SERMON XVII. 

DIVINE AUTHORITY. 

Z. T. Sweeney. 

Text. — "By what authority doest thou these things?" 

This is the question addressed by the scribes and 
Pharisees to the Saviour, and it is a most natural and 
reasonable question. When a strange man to-day 
enters a community, with a strange and revolutionary 
teaching, the existing authorities have a right to ask 
the source of his authority. Coming as I do, under 
strange circumstances, before a strange people, I 
recognize your right to challenge my authority. And 
before I can give it intelligently, we must study the 
nature and ground of authority in religion. 

What is authority? It is defined by the Standard 
Dictionary to be : "The right to command and enforce 
obedience ; the right to act by virtue of office, station 
or relation; as, the authority of parent over child; the 
authority of an officer." Authority is of two kinds. 
First: Primary, which grows out of the relation of 
those who have the right to command those whose 
duty it is to obey. Second : Delegated authority, which 
can be given to another by the party holding primary 
authority. The fountain of all primary authority in 
religion is God. We are his and he made us ; we are 
the creatures of his hand and the product of his intel- 
ligence. He is our Maker, our Preserver and our 

263 



264 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

bountiful Benefactor, and has, therefore, the absolute 
right to command, and it is our absolute duty to un- 
questionably obey. But our heavenly Father has 
rarely seen fit to govern men by his personal and 
primary authority. He has delegated that power to 
others, and rules by his representatives. 

In considering delegated authority, the first delega- 
tion was from the Father to the Son, as will be seen 
from the following Scriptures. Heb. i : I : "God, who 
at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time 
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these 
last clays spoken unto us by his Son." The Son him- 
self says : "The word which you hear is not mine, but 
the Father's who sent me." "No man knoweth who 
the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son 
will reveal him." And the Son closes his life on earth, 
and prefaces his great commission to the apostles with 
the statement : "All power in heaven and in earth is 
given unto me ; go ye, therefore, and teach all 
nations ;" and, under the inspiration of that commis- 
sion, they went forward, teaching a lost world that 
"God is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." 
He gives the world an introduction to his Father. 

The Son stands nearest the Father in delegated 
authority. He is the "brightness of the Father's glory 
and the express image of his person." "It hath 
pleased the Father that in him all fulness should 
dwell;" and when the Father acknowledged him after 
his baptism, he said: "This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him." He was not 
only the delegate of God on earth, but he is the 
"image of the invisible God," and he said to his doubt-- 



THE INDIANA FULPIT 265 

ing disciples: "He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." 

The traveler who stands on the banks of Lake 
Geneva, and looks at the shining snow-capped moun- 
tain peaks that stand guard over the little lake like 
giant warriors in silver mail over the cradle of an 
infant queen, is often dazzled with the brightness of 
the sun's reflection directed from their summits. If 
he would view the scene, softened and subdued, he has 
only to cast his glance upon the blue bosom of the 
lake, and there, mirrored in splendid imagery, he sees 
the same scene, softened and subdued for the eye. 

Jesus Christ is to the Father what the lake is to 
the mountain peaks. A reflection of his immaculate 
purity, power and love, veiled in human flesh, so that 
we may look upon him and live. Jesus is a reflection 
of the purity of God ; from the cradle to the grave he 
was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sin- 
ners. Xearing the end of his human existence, he 
stood up in the presence of those who had known 
him from his boyhood days, and those who were 
exercising all their ingenuity and malice to entrap 
him and point out the defects of his life, and issued 
to them the remarkable challenge: "Which of you 
convicteth me of sin?" — a challenge which was not 
met by the Pharisees of his own time, nor by any 
subsequent time. Many have attempted to show that 
Jesus was a sinner ; many have attempted to convict 
him of human weakness and folly ; but all such at- 
tempts have been miserable failures when subjected 
to the test of common sense and human experience. 

Jesus is a manifestation of the power of God. A 



266 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

permanent interest attends the contemplation of 
power. Whether its manifestations be in the realm 
of matter or spirit, they alike arrest the attention and 
challenge interest. Power seems to be apart from 
mere matter, and to have kinship with like itself. It 
certainly is the connecting link between mind and 
matter, and it is the agency through which mind 
controls matter. It is the hand by whose cunning, 
thought and purpose take on form in the outer world. 
It forever hides itself from our view, but the work 
of its cunning fingers and impress of its swiftly 
moving feet are to be seen on every hand. There is 
a difference between power and force. Force startles 
and affrights us ; power, directed by intelligence and 
love, is always pleasing to us. There is force in the 
thunderbolt as it cleaves the heavens, shatters the 
monarch of the forest, or razes a building to the 
ground. There is power in that thunderbolt when, 
under intelligent control, it propels a boat or a rail- 
way train. 

Jesus Christ is not a manifestation of the force of 
God, but of the power of God. He is force veiled in 
human weakness. There is the blending of human 
power and weakness all through his life. In weak- 
ness, he was born in a stable, cradled in a manger and 
warmed into life by the breath of oxen. In power, 
the angels came down from heaven to sing the great 
overture to earth, "Glory to God in the highest, peace 
on earth, good will to men," while he is adored by the 
Wise-men who have journeyed from afar to behold 
his glory. In weakness, he is tempted of the devil; 
in power, he commands that same devil to get behind 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 267 

him. In weakness, he sleeps, a weary man, in the 
stern of the boat while the storm rages without ; in 
power, he stands upon the prow of that same boat, 
and speaks those mighty winds into the calmness of 
silence. In weakness, he pities the multitudes ; in 
power, the loaves and fishes multiply under his hands 
till the same multitudes have been satisfied. In weak- 
ness, he weeps at the grave of his friend; in power, 
he startles the vaults of the grave with the cry, 
"Lazarus, come forth," and in obedience to that 
mighty power the dead arises and lives again. In 
weakness, he pays tribute to Caesar; in power, he 
calls upon the fishes of the sea, and they bring him 
.the coin with which to do it. In weakness, he suffers 
hunger ; but, in power, he heals the sick of all their 
diseases. In weakness, he groans and prays that the 
awful cup may pass from his lips; in power, he fells 
the soldiery by his majestic presence. In weakness, 
he has not where to lay his head, and is dependent 
upon charity of friends for raiment; in power, he 
prepares a place for all that love him. In weakness, 
he bleeds and gasps on Calvary's cross ; in power, he 
bestows paradise upon the penitent thief at his side. 
In weakness, he bows his head and yields up the 
spirit ; but nature attests his power by terrible convul- 
sions, in which the sun refuses to give his light, and 
the moon is colored by his shed blood. In weakness, 
he is buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea ; in 
power, he rises and stands over the mouth of his 
conquered grave and plants the standard of immor- 
tality upon which he has inscribed : "I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he 



268 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die." 

Jesus is a reflection of the love of God. He him- 
self says that "God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life. For God 
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
but that the world through him might be saved." The 
birth of Jesus Christ witnessed the flood-tide of God's 
love to man. When, of old, God laid the foundations 
of the earth, the morning stars sang together, and the 
sons of God shouted for joy. This was doubtless an 
expression of joy over the power and majesty of God, 
but when the puling, whining infant of Bethlehem lay. 
in its manger wrapped in swaddling bands, and 
warmed into life by the breath of oxen, then the 
angels of heaven came down and sang the overture to 
earth, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, 
good will toward men." This was the flood-tide of 
God's glory and God's love. It w T as the unfolding of 
the great heart of God, yearning for his lost children, 
and saying to them, as he sends their Elder Brother, 
"Come home, wandering children, come home." 

I have read somewhere a beautiful story of a 
young girl in England, betrayed and led into shame, 
who drifted away from the old home in the country, 
and went down to London — the great maw that is 
devouring the young blood and life of England and 
spewing out their bones into the muddy waters of the 
Thames. Down, down, she went, until she had reached 
almost the lowest round in the deep, sad degradation 
of the abandoned woman. The heart of the old mother 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 269 

yearned for her wayward child. In the silent hours 
of the night and the busy ones of the day she thought 
of her wandering one, and how she could redeem 
her ; and at last she went to a photographer and had 
her picture taken and framed, and underneath it the 
words writen, "Come home, my child ; come home." 
With the assistance of some friends she had this pic- 
ture placed in one of the low houses and dens of 
infamy. And one night, the daughter, half intoxi- 
cated, reeling in the giddy maze of the dance-house, 
came face to face with the sad eyes and sorrow- 
graven cheeks of her old mother. As she stopped to 
look for a moment, and wonder how that face could 
have happened there, she read beneath the words, 
"Oh, my child, come home, come home." The mes- 
sage broke down her wicked nature, and that girl, 
who knew her mother had followed her into deepest 
degradation with love, such as only a mother can have, 
was born again to new hope and new life and new 
purity by this great love picture. 

O man of sorrow and sin, O woman of willfulness 
and waywardness, Jesus Christ is God's great photo- 
graph of purity, power and love ; and his words to the 
sinner are God's words ; his teaching is God's teach- 
ing ; his promises are God's promises ; his command- 
ments are God's commandments. While we may not 
approach directly into the presence of the Father and 
hear him speak to us, we can approach him in Jesus 
Christ with the assurance that he is our Mediator. 
Our Mediator made perfect through suffering, and, 
being made perfect, he became the Author of eternal 
salvation to all them that obey him. . Let us, therefore, 



270 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

learn the lesson that Jesus Christ is our great Teacher. 
His every word is weighty with life and his every 
example full of inspiration. What he teaches, we 
are to believe ; what he commands, we are to do. On 
his promises we are to build our hopes, and by his 
threatenings and warnings we are to be kept from 
danger. 

When Jesus was on earth and talked with men 
face to face, men were directly under his commands, 
and could claim his promises, but he has passed away 
from earth and no more rules it by his own direct 
authority. Just as the Father delegated authority to 
the Son, so Jesus delegated his authority to the apos- 
tles. This is made very clear if we consider the 
teaching of his prayer in the seventeenth chapter of 
John, when he says : "As thou hast given him power 
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as 
many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, 
that they might know thee, the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified 
thee on the earth : I have finished the work which 
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify 
thou me with thine own self and the glory which I had 
with thee before the world was. I have manifested 
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of 
the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them me ; 
and they have kept thy word. Now they have known 
that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of 
thee. For I have given unto them the words which 
thou gavest me ; and they have received them, and 
have, known surely that I came out from thee, and 
they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 271 

for them : I pray not for the world, but for them 
which thou hast given me ; for they are thine. And 
all mine are thine, and thine are mine ; and I am 
glorified in them. And now I am no more in the 
world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. 
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those 
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as 
we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept 
them in thy name : those whom thou gavest me I have 
kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdi- 
tion ; that the scripture might be fulfilled." In study- 
ing the above Scripture, we learn clearly : First, that 
God gave Christ power over all flesh. This power 
was given that he might bestow eternal life on men, 
and that eternal life is bestowed through the knowl- 
edge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he 
hath sent. That God gave Jesus certain men out of 
the world, that he might teach them all which God 
had given him. 

We now reach the second step in the transfer of 
delegated authority; namely, transfer from Jesus 
Christ to the apostles. And the second step in divine 
authority is Christ in the apostles. In the transfer of 
authority from the Father to the Son, there was no 
danger of error or mistake. The Son, being as divine 
as the Father, could receive without misunderstand- 
ing all that the Father communicated. But the 
apostles are human, with all the weaknesses and im- 
perfections that pertain to humanity, and there is 
danger, therefore, that they may misapprehend or mis- 
understand the communication which Christ makes to 
them because of their imperfections. It becomes nee- 



272 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

essary, therefore, for some power or influence to be 
exerted on their minds to preserve them from error 
and from mistakes, either in taking in, or in giving 
out, the lessons which they are to receive ; hence, 
Christ promises them the Holy Spirit, which is to 
guide them into all truth in the conveying of this 
gospel to the world. This is made evident by a num- 
ber of Scriptural passages. Christ says to his dis- 
ciples : "I have yet many things to say unto you, but 
ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatso- 
ever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he will 
shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for 
he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 
All things that the Father hath are mine : therefore 
said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it 
unto you." In commenting upon this in later years, 
the apostle said : "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love 
him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his 
Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the 
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in 
him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but 
the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the 
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; 
that we might know the things that are freely given 
us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the 
words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the 
Holy Spirit teacheth." It is evident, therefore, that 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 273 

Jesus saw fit to impart the Spirit to his apostles that 
they might make no mistake in making known his will 
to the sons of men. Just as Jesus was the representa- 
tive of God on earth, so the Spirit-guided apostles are 
the representatives of Jesus upon the earth for the 
purpose of making known his will to the sons of men. 
Their teaching is Jesus' teaching, their command- 
ments are the commandments of Jesus, and their au- 
thority, the authority of Jesus. "He that receiveth 
you receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me receiveth 
him that sent me." Would you receive God? Receive 
Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Would you receive 
Christ? Receive the apostles whom he hath sent. 

We have now reached the stage of the final trans- 
fer of delegated authority. When the apostles com- 
pleted the revelation of the will of God in Jesus Christ, 
it became the perfect law of liberty to which nothing 
could be rightfully added ; from which nothing could 
be rightfully taken away. 

The object of baptism of the Holy Spirit and its 
divine guidance was to insure against mistakes in the 
revelation of the gospel. That object having been 
attained, there is no more necessity for special illu- 
mination and guidance by the Spirit of God, and 
therefore no more illumination by the Spirit. Men 
talk of being led, guided and controlled by a direct 
operation of the Spirit: such men talk blindly and 
madly. In the history of religious fanaticism, there 
has hardly been a single case of an infatuated or 
misguided man who has not made a similar claim. 
The same is true of wicked and designing impostors. 
That man to-day is led by the Spirit who is led by the 



274 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

truth, and the man who walks not according to the 
teachings of the apostles walks not according to the 
Spirit. The man who teaches men to disobey the plain 
commandments of the apostles can not be guided by 
the same Spirit that inspired them to proclaim those 
commandments. The Spirit which leads an apostle 
to proclaim a truth will not lead any one else to ignore 
or disobey that truth. All attempts to add to the 
words of the apostles, or to subtract from them, or to 
substitute other teaching in the place of their teaching, 
are of the devil. The devil had no opportunity to 
corrupt the truth as it proceeded from the Father to 
the Son, neither had he an opportunity to corrupt it 
as it proceeded from the Son to the apostles ; but his 
time arrived when the apostles had proclaimed it to 
the world. "Those by the way side are those that 
hear ; then cometh the devil and taketh away the 
word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and 
be saved." The unfolding of divine authority may 
be marked by the following sentence : "God in Christ, 
Christ in the apostles, the apostles in the world." 




Allan B. Philputt. 



276 



ALLAN B. PHILPUTT. 

Allan B. Philputt was born in Bedford County, 
Tenn., where his father had come, from Virginia. 
His mother's people were South Carolinians. His 
forbears on both sides have been farmers and planters 
since their immigration to America, from England, in 
the early part of the eighteenth century. Mr. Philputt 
was brought by his parents to southern Indiana 
(Washington County) at the close of the Civil War, 
and there he grew up helping on the farm, later 
teaching school, and finally entering the State Univer- 
sity at Bloomington, where he was graduated in the 
class of 1880. In September of this year he married 
Miss Anna Maxwell, daughter of Dr. D. H. Maxwell, 
of Bloomington. Air. Philputt afterwards pursued 
studies in Harvard University and the Episcopal 
Divinity School at Philadelphia. 

During his early years he united with the church, 
and while an undergraduate at Bloomington visited 
and preached for country churches, and after his 
graduation was called to the pastorate of the church 
in Bloomington, where he remained six years. It was 
at this time that the present house of worship there 
was built. During the last year or two of his pas- 
torate, and for a year after his resignation, he taught 
classes in Latin and Greek in the university, where he 
was called to the assistant professorship of these 
chairs, and given leave of absence to study at Harvard. 
Deciding afterwards to continue in the ministry rather 
than follow the teaching profession, he resigned from 
the university and accepted a call to the old First 

277 



278 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Church, Philadelphia, where he remained nearly ten 
years. It was during this time that this church sold 
their old house at Twelfth, above Wallace, and pur- 
chased of Russell H. Conwell and his congregation the 
beautiful Grace Baptist Church at Berks and Mer- 
vine Streets. 

On May I, 1898, Mr. Philputt began his pastorate 
at the Central Church, Indianapolis, where he now 
labors. Mr. Philputt has been active in the general 
organizations of the church. He was twice elected 
State superintendent of Christian Endeavor of Penn- 
sylvania, has been for many years a trustee of the 
United Society of Christian Endeavor, has been presi- 
dent of the American Christian Missionary Conven- 
tion, and is one of the directors of Butler College. 
Mr. Philputt is a member of the Sons of the Revolu- 
tion and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 



SERMON XVIII. 

THE WRITTEN WORD. 
Allan B. Philputt. 

Text. — Rom. 15:4: "For whatsoever things were written 
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through 
patience and comfort of the scripture might have hope." 

The phrasing of this text is classic. Its chaste 
and beautiful words have given it a place in the rituals 
of the church from early times. They are the words 
of a wise old saint and scholar, a rare interpreter of 
literature and life. The scholar is a man of wide 
appreciations. Our debt to him is limitless. The 
Biblical scholar brings to his task a keen insight into 
the minds and conditions of past ages. Not only do 
we owe to him the transmission of the Christian Scrip- 
tures, but we have received from him also that by 
which we are able to read and properly interpret 
those Scriptures; namely, a knowledge of the manners 
and customs, origins and history, languages and life, 
of the people to whom they were first given. Scholar- 
ship is of course not infallible, but the scholar should 
be held in the very highest respect, for without his 
aid we should be forever groping in the dark. 

Paul brought to the work of an apostle a mind 
trained in the best schools of his time. Learning will 
not make a man great: it did not make Paul great. 
But learning can be greatly used by men of power,. 

279 



280 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

who without it are painfully limited, except for ver) 
special tasks. 

It takes a great mind to fully interpret the Scrip- 
tures. The. wayfaring man may doubtless keep the 
road, but he will fail to see much that lies along the 
road. . The meaning of Scripture is not simply a 
matter of grammar and lexicon, but also of literary 
sense and feeling. Literary expression is not an exact 
science like mathematics. It is fluid, flexible and 
imaginative. To properly estimate all the lights and 
shades of language is possible only to the scholar, or 
to the born genius who has the feeling of the scholar. 
Such a discriminative and sensitive interpreter was 
Paul. He knew when to insist upon the full, painful 
letter of the law, and when to ease up on the remorse- 
less logic of the literalist, in the interests of justice 
and mercy. No dead literalism can bring to us the 
real message of the Bible. Nor can a flagrant disregard 
for the letter of Scripture be accounted safe. It is all 
a matter of interpretation. 

What did a given writer mean by what he said? 
With what feeling and under what circumstances did 
he say it? A man prejudiced in favor of, or against, 
any question is not the safest interpreter of the Scrip- 
tures bearing on that question. His prejudice inevi- 
tably shuts off some of the light he needs in getting at 
the precise import of the language. The failure to 
properly interpret Scripture gives rise to the saying 
that you can prove anything by the Bible. All sects 
go to the Bible, ostensibly, to prove their tenets, and 
they all seem, in a way, to succeed. 

The greatest need of our time is interpreters of 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 281 

the Bible, not theorists, orthodox or heterodox, but 
just great prophetic souls that can read to us out of 
the law of the Lord and give the meaning thereof. 
The old method of proof-text argument is falling into 
disuse. And yet even proof-texts must be reckoned 
with. If a doctrine or duty is enjoined in Scripture, 
there is usually some chapter and verse which enjoins 
it. If we assert that covetousness is a sin, it helps 
mightily to be able to quote the Scripture which warns 
against "covetousness, which is idolatry." 

If we urge the people to weekly attendance upon 
the Lord's Supper, it gives force to our pleading to be 
able to say right out of the sacred record, "When the 
disciples were met together on the first day of the 
week to break bread." And so with many questions, 
we greatly strengthen, and in not a few instances abso- 
lutely authorize, a thing by the text of Scripture. The 
danger here lies in extremes. To use the New Testa- 
ment as a sort of "Hardee's Tactics," is to miss often 
the larger and truer meaning of it. We must get back 
to principles. "The letter killeth, but the spirit maketh 
alive." A classic illustration of the application of this 
principle is in the matter of feet-washing. If we take 
the letter of Scripture there is nothing more specifically 
and positively enjoined than feet-washing. "If I, 
your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also 
ought to wash one another's feet." It would seem 
as easy to overthrow the doctrine of baptism or the 
Lord's Supper as the act of feet-washing. But we 
go back to the principle of the thing, and take the 
very sane view that the real significance of the act of 
our Saviour in washing his disciples' feet was humility 

(10) 



282 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and service. The way in which he exhibited these 
spiritual qualities was purely incidental. In fact, he 
showed them forth in many ways. 

Take another illustration. The second coming of 
our Lord was assuredly believed, even by so great an 
authority as Paul, to be imminent in his day. Certain 
sayings attributed to Christ, and recorded in the 
twenty- fourth chapter of Matthew, may very well have 
formed the basis of his belief. True, they are not 
quite explicit, neither is anything Paul says quite ex- 
plicit, as to the day and hour of his coming, but it all 
clearly implies an event not far removed from that 
time. By the literal, proof-text method of using 
Scripture a strong case could have been made out for 
the action of many of the early disciples in disposing 
of earthly goods, and eschewing earthly ambitions and 
plans, in daily expectation of their Master's coming. 
In fact, so many texts either expressly, or darkly, hint 
at this event in the Bible, that many people to-day hold 
themselves in readiness for it. If one wishes to test 
his mettle in debate, let him measure swords with a 
Seventh-day Adventist on this proposition. He will 
soon find out that some things can be proven out of 
Scripture, by this method, that are not true. Many 
illustrations might be used to show the danger of 
handling the written Word in this way, but these will 
suffice. 

On the other hand, there is a slipshod disregard of 
the words of Holy Writ, a habit, on the part of some, 
of cavalierly waiving aside a clear statement of God's 
word, in the interest of some preconceived theory of 
things, that is to be condemned. It all comes back to 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 283 

this : The Bible must be not only read, but interpreted. 
Grammar and lexicon are necessary, also a literary 
feeling, a historic sense, a Christian consciousness. 
"The scriptures were written for our learning." They 
are to be studied, brooded over, tried out in daily 
living, prayed over, believed in, leaned upon in trouble, 
grasped as a weapon of offence and defence in the 
battle of life, that we through patience and comfort of 
them might have hope. So, it seems, Paul used the 
Scriptures. He studied them in the light of his own 
nature, its strength, its limitations. "The law is good," 
he says ; "it holds up a perfect ideal and served a 
great historic purpose. But I find I can not keep the 
law. As a means of universal salvation it is bound 
to prove a failure. It has failed in me, it will fail in 
every man. We must therefore look for justification 
through faith in Jesus Christ." A religion that saves 
must fit into the needs and facts of human nature. 
It must apply to conditions as they are in the world. 
Law is law. If you violate in one point, you violate 
the whole system. He said every man will break, at 
some point, some time. If a man steals a bushel of 
coal, our courts send him to prison. This is all they 
do if he should steal a million dollars, burn up a city. 
wreck a passenger train, spread an epidemic of small- 
pox, and do a hundred other things in addition. Viola- 
tion in one point, speaking in a general way, brings the 
same punishment as -violation in many points. 

Man's journey across the continent of the years is 
long and perilous. He needs a guide. The Bible is 
that guide. If I had to journey over mountain ranges, 
with their glaciers, crevasses and dangerous snow- 



284 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

slides, I should greatly need a guide — a man who had 
traveled over them and knew the safe way. So the 
Word of life tells us of many who have gone the long 
journey with safety, and how they have gone. Most 
of all, it leads us right up to One who came down from 
heaven to guide us. He will conduct us safe to the 
end if we put ourselves in his hands. If Paul, having 
in mind only the Old Testament, could speak so con- 
fidently of the value of the Scripture, how much more 
should we rest in it, seeing that we have the fine 
flower and fruit of the Old in the New. 

We should take the whole Bible. It was all written 
for our learning. Sixty-six books bound together, but 
at least a thousand years intervene between the earliest 
and the latest of them. The Bible contains history, 
poetry, argument, hymns, letters and dramas. The 
authors include prophets, judges, poets, herdsmen, 
soldiers, kings, fishermen, a tentmaker and a physician. 
The unity of the whole is wonderful. Never once is 
the Bible wrong in any of its great contentions. It 
has been the best-loved book of all the ages. The man 
or woman unfamiliar with its contents is ignorant 
indeed. 

The Bible has suffered somewhat in modern times 
by a false emphasis being placed upon it. Because 
certain allusions to science seem to be contradicted by 
modern knowledge, or because historical statements 
are found to be, in some cases, inaccurate and con- 
fused, the authority of this Book is believed to be im- 
paired. This is to mistake its use. These things may 
well happen to the writings of men transmitted 
through thousands of years, transcribed many times, 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 285 

and translated from dead languages into living 
tongues. The Bible is for moral teaching, "for in- 
struction and correction in righteousness.'' Criticism 
has not dimmed the glory of its ethical teaching, nor 
the binding power of its injunctions to holiness. 

A false and inadequate estimate has fallen upon 
the written Word because by a very large and conten- 
tious element of the church it has been brought into 
contrast with the Holy Spirit, which we are said to 
receive and which they claim is a surer and more 
immediate guide than the Word. The Bible, to be 
sure, is not despised by these, but its pages are thought 
to be sealed in their deeper and more precious meaning 
until opened up to us by that Spirit which is given to us 
by the attainment of great sanctity and much prayer. 
We are said to live under the dispensation of the Holy 
Spirit, and not under the letter of the Word. We are 
to look upon the W T ord as only the kindergarten of 
religious enlightenment. This view has done much to 
impair the authority of the Bible. If we are to wait 
for the confirmation of the Holy Spirit, speaking in 
us, for instance, before we can have assurance that 
we are accepted by God, and have been born again, 
what becomes of the promises of the written Word? 
Especially as these base themselves upon certain con- 
ditions laid down therein, which we may easily know 
whether we have fulfilled or not. 

I do not wish, at this point, to enter upon any 
discussion of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I be- 
lieve in the Holy Spirit, and I believe that we receive 
him by obedience to the gospel. I have no doubt that 
the person so filled with the Spirit comes to the read- 



286 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

ing of Scripture with a certain kind of equipment 
denied to one who is a stranger to such inward regen- 
eration. The life that is holy, and enlivened by a 
warm and quick sense of God's love, is likely to see 
meanings in the writings of the blessed Book that one 
devoid of these qualities does not see; just as a soul 
touched with the sense of beauty in nature will see 
more in great poetry than the ordinary Philistine. 
Our friends who go in so much for the Holy Spirit, 
with at least an implied derogation of the Word, seem 
to me to fall, however, into hurtful extremes. I have 
seen them act in strange ways, claiming high sanction 
for what seemed very doubtful teaching. I have seen 
them reach results by quick and questionable methods, 
which were promised in the written Word only after 
long and painful processes, of self-denial and the 
crucifixion of the flesh. I have witnessed signs of 
what seemed very illusory assurances, ecstacies and 
levitations on the part of those possessed, that were 
hardly warranted by what we know of the facts of life. 
The Bible points to the way of patience, discipline 
and obedience as the way of peace. That there is a 
quiet joy and rejoicing on the part of one who tries 
to do his Master's will, I make no question. It is one 
of the precious things of Christian experience. But I 
place the emphasis here upon the written Word and 
not upon the Holy Spirit, except as it breathes through 
and gives soul to the Word. I have never, consciously, 
received any accession of knowledge through the Holy 
Spirit that I did not find in the written Word. I have 
found no special guidance or added information as to 
what I must do to be saved outside the Scriptures. I 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 287 

have greatly desired peace in my soul. The written 
Word has told me that I must separate myself from 
sin, that I must forsake evil and do good, that I must 
crucify the flesh. I have found this difficult to do. It 
is a hard way, as things go in this world. But I have 
found that, in so far as I did it, I had peace and joy. 

There are many quack remedies for happiness 
to-day, as there always have been. There are foolish 
and superficial cults and cure-alls for our unrest. They 
cry to men, "Come with us ; we will cure you while 
you wait." Some have left the church to follow these 
lights. Let us hope that they may see the folly of it 
and return. The sane old voices of sages and 
prophets, saints and apostles, that have stood the test- 
ing of time, are still the safest. Why leave the great 
lights for the pale moonlight, or the dark starlight? 

For me, in all matters of the soul, the written 
Word is the Spirit's word. The Spirit may have 
spoken, separate and apart from the Word, to others, 
but not to me. Nothing of Christian truth has come 
to me that I did not find in the Bible. How calming 
those words of the prophet, "What doth the Lord re- 
quire of thee but to do justly, love mercy, and walk 
humbly with thy God?" How sweet the words of 
John, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, 
that they may have right to the tree of life, and may 
enter in through the gates into the city." I do not 
belittle the Holy Spirit. I believe that I have felt his 
presence in my heart, attuning it to his purposes, clari- 
fying my understanding, and making the meaning of 
all things better known to me, inclining my will to the 
upholding and doing of God's law. Again, I say, I 



288 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

believe in the Holy Spirit. We should live in his 
power, we should approach every task with his 
gracious presence. Every seeming hard duty and 
bitter drudgery should be made easier by invoking the 
presence within us of that gentle Grace which teaches 
us to do hard, coarse things in a cheerful and fine way. 
John, in the lonely isle of Patmos, found his lot 
grievous, but on one Lord's Day he says he was in the 
Spirit, which is only another way of saying the Spirit 
was in him. It was a good day for him. His heart 
was cheered by visions of the heavenly ones who had 
gained the victory. He saw the troubles and perils 
of time pass away. He saw a great multitude, whom 
no man could number, praising God, their souls re- 
deemed and washed in the blood of the Lamb. He 
saw "One like unto the Son of man in the midst of 
the golden candlesticks, clothed with a garment down 
to the foot and girt about with a golden girdle, his 
head white like wool, as white as snow ; his eyes as a 
flame of fire, and his feet like unto molten brass ; his 
voice as the sound of many waters. I am he that was 
dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore." Glorious 
vision ! The Spirit of the Lord within us raises all 
our faculties to the highest power. But, whatever we 
may see or dream, under its spell, will be found to be 
compounded of elements made familiar to us in the 
written Word, explicit or implicit, with which our 
minds and hearts should be always fully imbued. 

The present agitation for Bible study, if it does 
not lose itself in mere tricks and schemes of easy 
methods, is to be encouraged. There has been a 
famine of Bible knowledge among the people. Even 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 289 

now, with all our modern education, the ignorance of 
the Scriptures is appalling. Nor will this ignorance 
be much helped by mere memory work and five-finger 
exercises. People should be taught to read the Word 
in the spirit of devotion, with slow and patient brood- 
ing, hovering over it until its sense and meaning shall 
dawn upon them. The head will interpret much, the 
heart more. There is, after all, something very subtle 
about it. As we read and think and feel, the glory of 
it will unfold. New splendors will arise before our 
waiting souls. There is nothing sudden in the process. 
"Through patience and comfort of the scriptures we 
may have hope." 

Many of us will have to read in part through 
others' eyes. This is well. We can not all read deeply 
and with the fullest literary feeling. But we can 
understand much. Paul congratulates Timothy that 
from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures. He 
had first read them through the eyes and the heart 
of his mother and grandmother. Fortunate was 
Timothy to have received his first lessons in the sacred 
writings from a woman and a mother, ever the Bible's 
best interpreter for youth. Paul loved the Scriptures 
and accounted them profitable for doctrine, for re- 
proof, for correction in righteousness, that the man 
of God may be perfect. "Don't let your knowledge 
die with you," he exhorted Timothy. "Commit thou 
this love of the scriptures to faithful men who shall 
be able to teach others also." 

The church has too much neglected the teaching 
function. The pulpit mistrusts its ability to hold the 
interest of the people while it teaches. There is ready 



290 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

resort to more highly spiced preaching, full 'of meta- 
phor, illustration, anecdote and argument, that the 
people may be aroused and delighted. Paul had a 
wholesome dread of the ultimate effects of oratory 
in the ministry. The tongues of men and of angels, 
he said, can not compensate for love. He foresaw the 
time when eloquence would be the supreme, if not the 
sole, test of a preacher's acceptance with the people. 
People would have itching ears. He dreaded it as he 
dreaded the pre-eminence of philanthropies, wherein 
rich men would give to feed the poor, and thus buy 
exemption from brotherly love, for people have itching 
palms also. They praise the man who gives his 
millions, and forget the many who bear lowly burdens. 

This is a restless age. We like hurry ; we dote on 
quick and specious success. The King's business re- 
quires haste, we are told. It requires also many other 
things. I know of no one thing that it requires just 
now more than a deep and full understanding of the 
word of God. Herein lies our strength and security 
against every wind of doctrine. Here we catch the 
vision of a world waiting for light and salvation. 
Here we find the way of duty for ourselves. We learn 
that our neighbors dwell, some of them, in the utter- 
most parts of the earth, and that we are to love them 
as we love ourselves. Here we learn that God is the 
Father of all men, and would have all men to be saved ; 
that no man liveth to himself or dieth to himself, but, 
whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. 

We come to that best of all knowledge, the appre- 
ciation of spiritual values. Truly did the Psalmist 
say, "The entrance of thy words giveth life." 




William Chapple. 



292 



WILLIAM CHAPPLE. 

William Chappie was born in England. For a 
number of years he served as the county evangelist of 
Bartholomew County, Ind. He did a great work. He 
is a man who reads and keeps abreast of the times. 
He is an untiring worker and is happy when in the 
evangelistic work. 



293 



SERMON XIX. 

SERVICE AND REWARD. 
Wm. Chapple. 

Text. — Matt. 25 : 21 : "His lord said unto him, Well done, 
thou good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over 
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : enter 
thou into the joy of thy lord." 

It is the supreme desire of every true Christian to 
please Christ. No good man will be heedless of the 
judgment of the world or the church. To be approved 
by our brethren, and, better still, by our own con- 
science, is no small pleasure ; but there are moments 
when every good man feels it is a small thing to be 
judged by man's judgment — a judgment which, how- 
ever approving, may be reversed by the great Judge ; 
a judgment which, however condemning, may not be 
sustained by the great Judge. Any human judgment 
may be easily modified or revoked by Him who judg- 
eth righteous judgment; therefore every true believer 
cares for Christ's approval and acceptance as he cares 
for nothing else. Paul's language is the motto text 
of every true life : "We labor, therefore, that, whether 
present or absent, we may be accepted of him." On 
this the eye is fixed in the prosecution of every toil 
and the selection of every course ; and, animated by 
such a regard for Christ's approval, we shall have 
but one desire — to be and do right, that we may be 
righteous in the estimate of the eternal moral law, 

295 



296 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

and in the opinion of Him whose judgment abides. 
This is the suggestion and idea of the text. The 
parable with which this is connected involves many 
thoughts of general and impressive teaching — that 
Christians are serving an unseen Master who has gone 
to receive to himself a kingdom ; that a great and 
responsible charge is devolved upon every servant of 
God ; that, however long he may seem to tarry, the 
day of the Lord's final reckoning will come ; that the 
results of work done for Christ remain. There 
thoughts we now waive to look at two — service and 
reward. 

I. Christian Service. "Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant." The term "good" seems to refer to 
the moral and essential qualities of the person who is 
the servant of God ; the word "faithful," to the fidelity 
and loyalty of the servant to His service. The prin- 
ciples which go to form a faithful man's character 
may be easily shown. His will must be in unison with 
the divine will, his mind with the divine mind, his life 
with the divine law, and he must be filled with the 
spirit of the Master. The quality of the servant and 
.the service are interconnected. One must be good to 
be faithful. 

i. Good and faithful service has respect to the 
motives of service. Motive is the spring of all mental 
and moral action. God has made us susceptible of 
outside impressions. We are affected by considera- 
tions of injury or advantage. We are free, but we 
are not independent of influences. If we will it, we 
are above the influence of circumstances to control or 
compel us to do wrong; but circumstances are power- 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 297 

fill persuasives to right or wrong. They have no 
original power over us, but they themselves must pay 
tribute to the regal will, but with this reservation: 
their influence is great, and it is this balancing of 
motives — the rejection of this and acknowledgment 
of that by the soul in its daily assize — which molds 
the character, the action, the life. Therefore, motive 
really lays bare the life — the man. It is the hidden 
but real principle of service, so that in judging of any 
work God must have respect to the motives which led 
to it. A work may be good in itself, and bring much 
succor and blessing to others, but if it spring from 
an earthly emotion, instead of a strong and pure 
motive, it can not be approved of God. It is when the 
eye is full of light that the service is full of acceptance. 
How full of solemn warning is this reflection! So 
much of our actual service as commends itself to God 
shall be accepted of him — no more. What a reduction 
will have to be made ! How much that now appears 
will be wanting then ! All that we are doing from 
force of habit or custom, or to gratify a miserable am- 
bition, or from profession, will be wanting then, and 
when so much will have been taken away from our 
work, how much will remain when it comes back to 
us after having been approved by the Lord? God 
will accept the gold amid the dross, but only the gold. 
What a change of places this judging by motives will 
bring ! Last first and first last ; men from obscurity 
rising, and men from high places going out of sight! 
And what consolation it will bring to true motive. 
When we try to serve Him from a pure motive and 
fail, the work alone fails, not the motive ; when we 



298 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

try to serve Him amidst circumscribed means, the 
thing may look small to men, but great to Him who 
looks at all the doer tried to do. The rich may give 
largely; but the poor, who do all they can, shall pass 
for munificent givers. Men who would die for Christ, 
if there were no alternative but to die or deny, having 
the martyr's spirit, shall receive the martyr's crown. 
What is in our heart that we would do if capacity or 
circumstances allowed, shall be accepted as if done. 
However fruitless the wish, and though it may seem to 
end in disappointment, Jesus whispers, "It was well, 
for it was in thine heart." He who is quick to detect 
fault is also quick to discover excellence. 

2. Good and faithful service has respect to the 
extent of service. All true service must begin in 
entire self-dedication to God. Without this self-sur- 
render, a man is nothing before God ; he has not even 
entered upon his service, and where this true consecra- 
tion takes place we must serve him to the extent of 
possibility and requirement. At whatever cost of labor 
or suffering or sacrifice, not conferring with flesh 
and blood, but mortifying the flesh, and, if need be, 
the affections also, going forward amid evil report and 
good in the practice of the required self-denial ; faith- 
ful to the extent and to the end, I am afraid the 
standard of Christian service is too often lowered and 
explained according to the opinions and actions of the 
Christian community around us, instead of by the 
mind of Christ. You have the clearest confirmation 
of this in the laudatory judgments so often passed on 
Christian service within our observation. Let a man 
maintain a good reputation, conform to the obser- 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 299 

varices of his church, and give the influence of his 
name and position and wealth to the cause of truth, 
and he will be honored and distinguished, and in death 
pronounced faithful, confident that the judgment will 
be ratified by the unseen Master. Faithful, although 
his social integrity and church observance were never 
allied to any deep spiritual feeling; faithful, though 
what he gave to Christ was little compared with what 
he kept back for himself ; faithful, though he expended 
little to bless the world compared with what he ex- 
pended in personal and family indulgences ; faithful, 
though he was never so eager in the service of Christ 
as in the pursuit of his own gain ; faithful, though he 
never sacrificed apparently his pleasure or his orna- 
ments or the smiles of men or suffered anything for 
the Master, whose universal law of service is, "If any 
man will be my disciple, let him deny himself ;" faith- 
ful, though he was never like those men in days of 
yore held up as patterns of service, as though Christ 
did not require from us the same kind or amount of 
service that he once demanded, as though he could be 
satisfied with a different and inferior service ; but we 
know that Christ is unchangeable, and he has given 
but one law to all his servants. The spirit and essence 
of his demands are the same for all time. 

3. Good and faithful service has respect to the 
manner of service. The shape or form which a service 
takes is a very important feature, because thereby we 
fulfill the particular and specific end of our being. 
Every man has his mission and his ministry; every 
life has its service. Each has his sphere in which to 
move and act, and no one can do the work of another. 



300 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

Nor can any one, with the Bible and providential 
arrangements open, be at a loss to know what line of 
action to pursue. The path open to one may be closed 
to another because he is not qualified to enter upon 
it. As in the universe of matter the atom has its 
place as well as the planet, or as in the universe of life 
the insect has its place as well as the seraph, so in the 
Christian church each has his sphere and all have 
their work. The one talent can and must be employed 
as well as the ten, though each is responsible accord- 
ing to his capacity and position. It is honest, personal 
service the world needs. The church must give ; the 
Master demands. Every one must seek to answer the 
divine idea of his life and powers. 

II. The Reward of Christian Service. "Well 
done." The question may be asked : "Is it fitting and 
right that Christ's servant should serve him with his 
eyes fixed on the promised reward ?" Yes ; because 
those rewards are moral distinctions and possessions, 
determined as the work has been, and indifference to 
such a reward indicates a nature insensible to moral 
beauty and goodness. Do you say that you will be 
content anywhere in heaven? With the very lowest 
seat? All you want is religion enough to get just 
inside the portal? You are regardless of the vessel, 
if you can only get safe to land even on a broken 
piece of wreck? Is that religion which renders one 
careless about the life's holiness, the heart's renewal, 
and the life's jewel-gathering service? Is that Chris- 
tian humility to make so little of what the Lord makes 
the subject of such exceeding great and precious 
promises? Why has Christ said so much and made 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 301 

lis so capable of these rewards? Why has he given 
us the love of power and distinction, which is to re- 
ceive its highest gratification in the heavenly recom- 
pense? Not that we may close our eyes upon them, 
and account them unworthy of our ambition, but to 
stimulate our zeal to the highest degree. It is not 
humility, it is not self-denial, to be indifferent to 
Christ's rewards. It is immoral, it is unchristian ! 

i. One reward suggested is the new and attractive 
view of death presented. This suggestion you have 
in the words : "Enter thou in." "Oh," you say, "is 
it possible that death, the source of so much loneliness 
and separation and suffering, can have any other 
aspect than one of grief and despair?" I say, in the 
light of this utterance, it has the most fascinating 
feature. The twofold question that has so shadowed 
death is: "Is death the extinction of being, or have 
we a conscious existence beyond it?" and, if we live 
hereafter, "What lies beyond in that unseen world?" 
The first question was asked not merely by the patri- 
arch, but has been repeated ever since. "Man giveth 
up the ghost, and where is he?" Is that corpse he, 
and has he passed out of existence forever? Or has 
he a conscious, spirit that exists disembodied? The 
second question, asked by the Psalmist, has often been 
asked by our misgiving hearts: "Shall the dead praise 
thee?" or are all the promises of ultimate blessedness 
only a dream, unsanctioned by anything beyond? To 
these questions these words return the fullest answer : 
"Enter thou in." There is a thou that survives death 
and exists beyond it. That body laid aside is mine, 
but not I. It is to me what the telescope is to the 



302 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

astronomer, the house to the tenant. The telescope 
may be broken, but the astronomer lives to get a 
better one ; the house may fall to ruins, but the inhabi- 
tants survive and step into a splendid mansion ; so that 
thou, the real man, outlives the apparent defeat and 
ruin of death, and enters into a more glorious uni- 
verse and a more blessed state. There are pangs of 
birth that men call death. Through the rewards of 
Christianity, death has changed its essential character. 
Its sorrows are no longer the hopeless cries of exile, 
but the groanings of the child longing for home. Its 
partings being but the prelude to more perfect re- 
unions, death is no longer a dreaded end, but the day 
of deliverance and manifestation of the sons of God. 
Death is the step to life; in dying we begin to live. 
The tomb is no longer life's outer gate, but heaven's 
inlet. The demon is changed to an angel, the dark 
vale to a glory-land fragrant with flowers. 

2. The reward secures to the Christian servant the 
most perfect felicity. "Enter thou into the joy of 
thy Lord." This is one of those utterances we can 
never fully understand. It is too pure and blessed 
and sublime for thought or word to explain. We 
sometimes ask: "Is it possible that the holiest saint 
shall ever dwell in the joy of the Lord? That the best 
of men in the perfect land shall ever thrill with God's 
own rapture? Why, the very splendor of the universe 
is but the shadow of him, the intensest joy of a life 
but a faint pulsation of his blessedness; and can man 
in any state or world ever drink of God's higher joy, 
ever throb with God's holiest life, ever stand un- 
scathed in the light of God's divinest glory?" These 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 303 

words remind you that entering into the joy of the 
Lord is not only one of the felicities of heaven, but 
the chief one ; its highest hope, its promised reward, 
its perfection of beauty, its heaven of heavens. That 
joy is the great object of their love, the great theme 
of their converse, the great burden of their song. In 
that painless world, where there is nothing to disturb 
the harmony, distress the heart, darken the prospect, 
violate the friendships, or sadden the home, saints 
shall dwell in the joy of the Lord. In that happy land 
whose fields have no blight, whose landscapes have no 
defect, whose skies have no clouds, whose gales have 
no storms — there the redeemed have entered into the 
joy of the Lord, and who shall describe the rich and 
kingly rapture of that joy, so unselfish and benevolent 
and free and gladdening and stainless and perfect? 

3. The reward includes the highest exaltation and 
dignity. ''Thou hast been faithful over a few things, 
I will make thee ruler over many things." The ques- 
tion may be asked : "Will there be anything answering 
to this in the heavenly state?" We admit that there 
is much that is figurative and emblematic here, as 
might be expected when such a world is represented; 
but, laying aside all imagery, there may be the most 
literal fulfillment of this expectation in that land 
where saints are to be kings and priests forever ; where 
racers reach the prize ; where stewards are made 
princes ; where warriors are crowned in victory, and 
where the Master says : "To him that overcometh will 
I give to sit with me upon my throne." The insepar- 
able connection between being faithful and being made 
rulers expressive of the principle, may go far to ex- 



304 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

plain the mystery. It shows you that it is not a novel 
idea, but a mere truism, as old and common as Chris- 
tianity. The church throughout all ages has been 
chanting it in that old song, "If we be dead with him, 
we shall also live with him ; if we suffer with him, we 
shall also reign with him ; if we have fellowship with 
his sorrows, we shall also be glorified together." The 
connection is one .of the most blessed verities of our 
faith: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of life." A true and faithful servant 
shall receive the royal gift and reflect the royal 
splendor in the world to come. The greatness, the 
eminence, the distinction, the dignity is indescribable. 
Sitting upon thrones of glory and wearing royal 
diadems and waving royal palms and robed in royal 
splendor, they shall indeed be exalted and be made 
very high. 

4. The reward culminates in the commendation 
and eulogium of the eternal God, "Well done." This 
commendation is the more blessed because it is pro- 
nounced by an infallible Judge — one who knows the 
end from the beginning. The nearest earthly friends 
may misunderstand a faithful man, and be partial or 
erroneous in th^ir estimate of him, but the Lord can 
not misinterpret a man. Then, too, God's commenda- 
tion is of Him who has the sole right to our service 
and homage, and who alone can reward it. The rea- 
sons for this "Well done" may be manifold, according 
to the all-embracing views of that God who sees the 
widespread and beneficial effects of faithful service. 
He may say, "Well done," because of a moral wealth 
that goes out from the service of a faithful servant. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 305 

You remember such service enters into the moral life 
of the race, beneficially affecting the fortunes of the 
world to the end of time, so that, when the memory of 
the servant shall be forgotten, his work shall linger 
as the salt of the earth. The reformer may die, but 
not the reformation ; the martyr may perish, but not 
his testimony to the faith ; the preacher may reach his 
grave, but those he has taught to love God will fear 
Him still — all this God observes. Or he may say, 
"Well done," because in that servant the whole re- 
deeming plan is fulfilled. Or he may say, "Well 
done," because of the perfect mastery over Satan and 
his work of ruin thus gained by him that overcometh. 
That "Well done," from whatever cause expressed, is 
the climax of the rewards of eternity. May we all 
hear it. 




Leonidas Eldon Brown, 



306 



LEONIDAS ELDON BROWN. 

Leonidas Eldon Brown is a son of John F. and 
Martha Brown. He was born Aug. 16, 1855, near 
Wilmington, O. On his mother's side he comes from 
preacher stock. She was the daughter of Thomas 
Howe, whose fame as an orator was known far and 
wide. He gave to the world two preachers — Robert 
L. Howe, father of President Howe, of Butler Col- 
lege, and William J. Howe, who became an eloquent 
preacher of the gospel. 

The subject of this sketch was educated in the 
school of hard knocks. He began early in life to 
preach. He is a student, a wide reader, and one of 
the most pleasing and eloquent preachers in the 
brotherhood. He has held some of the best pastorates, 
and is now with the splendid church at Lebanon, where 
he has served with marked success for a number of 
years. He is greatly loved by his people, and is doing 
the best work of his life. He has made quite a reputa- 
tion as a lecturer, and his calls are many. 



301 



SERMON XX. 

THE LEAVEN AND THE LUMP. 
L. E. Brown. 

Matt. 13 : 33 : "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, 
which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till 
the whole was leavened." 

Gal. 5:9: "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." 

I. Christ and the Kingdom. — The chief theme of 
Christ in private conversation, public address and pic- 
tured story was the kingdom — the reign of God on 
the earth. Matthew records him as having mentioned 
the subject forty-eight times. Over one-third of his 
parables are regarding the kingdom. When he sent 
forth the twelve and the seventy, it was that they 
might preach that the "kingdom is at hand." When 
he taught his disciples to pray as John had taught his, 
it was that the kingdom might come. After his pas- 
sion, during the forty days before his ascension, the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God was his 
theme. Lie inspired his messengers with this same 
great story. Philip the evangelist went down to Sa- 
maria and preached "the things concerning the king- 
dom of God." Paul, the apostle of Christ, went 
everywhere "preaching the kingdom of God." These 
pictures and stories of the kingdom present to us some 
important facts connected with the kingdom of God 
on earth. 

1. Its origin. The parables of the sower and the 

309 



310 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

seed, the grain of mustard seed, and the leaven and 
the meal, all present the Scriptural and scientific fact 
that all life begins in germ. William Hanna Thom- 
son, of New York, in an article in the Homiletic Re- 
view says : "I once asked an eminent biologist if I 
could correctly make the statement that at one time 
in their individual existence five hundred thousand 
whales could find room in the space occupied by a pin- 
head. He answered that this was quite true!" What 
a whale story! It outrivals that of Jonah; but it does 
not shake the faith of a modern scientist in the least. 
Jesus was then scientific when he represented his king- 
dom, in the heart and the world, as originating in a 
seed as small as that of the mustard seed; or a germ 
life like that of the leaven; and from beginnings so 
small was destined to fill the whole earth, thus present- 
ing the growth as well as the origin of the kingdom." 

2. The process was silent, noiseless like the grow- 
ing seed or expanding leaven, like the dew on the 
new-mown hay. "God was not in the earthquake, but 
in the still small voice." The mightiest ministries of 
nature are without sound. Electricity and magnetism 
are mighty forces in the material world, and their 
effects can be seen, but not often heard. We can see 
the seed grow, but do not hear it. So the invisible 
influences of the kingdom, like leaven, are changing 
this old world ot ours into the image and likeness such 
as will at last be pleasing to Him who has placed this 
transforming power in the Word — the seed ot the 
kingdom. 

3. The power begins within and works without. 
The change is first inward, then outward. It begins 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 311 

in the heart, then works out in the life until it mani- 
fests its power in a regenerated society as well as a 
changed individual. After all, we are not so much 
concerned about the form, organization or body, as we 
are the spirit that animates it. The true spirit of 
reform and patriotism will manifest itself in either a 
republican form of government or a limited monarchy. 
"Thy word have I hid in my heart," was the force 
that changed the heart of Paul the persecutor to Paul 
the eloquent pleader before kings in behalf of the 
Xazarene. It took sordid, selfish men and women, and 
made them into the world's sweetest spirits and most 
self-sacrificing souls. 

4. The possibilities of the kingdom. Jesus, in this 
picture of the kingdom, presents the possibilities that 
lie in this germ of truth, which is to leaven the whole 
world. This is in accord with the promises made to 
the fathers, and the dream of all the prophets that 
"He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from 
the rivers unto the ends of the earth." Never will 
the influence of this story cease until it shall have 
leavened the whole lump ; and the mustard seed, 
though so small, shall have grown until the bird of 
the air shall find shelter in its branches. 

II. Pictures of Paganism, as presented to us bw 
both the secular and sacred historians, present a seem- 
ingly hopeless condition of the lump at the time that 
the leaven of Christ was placed in it. The Jewish 
world, with all of its faith in Jehovah, had degenerated 
into a fatal formalism, and ritualism instead of right- 
eousness was the rule of the hour. Ceremonies were 
pertormed with scrupulous care, but character was 



312 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

sadly lacking. They tithed even their herbs of the 
garden, but had no tender ministries for the poor and 
unfortunate. Christ's story of the good Samaritan 
presented their attitude towards the social problems 
of their day, and showed how the priest from his 
prayers, and the Levite from his songs at the Temple 
service, could pass by on the other side, leaving the 
poor fellow to the kindly care of the despised Samari- 
tan. His criticisms of the Pharisees present a picture 
from which we turn away in disgust as he exposes 
their hypocrisies seen in the long prayers made for 
pretense, that they might appear unto men as right- 
eous. His trial and crucifixion tell the story of their 
ideas of liberty, and present to us a dark and damning 
picture of a people of whom better things were to be 
expected after all their centuries of training. 

When we turn from the dark picture of the Jewish 
world to that of the heathen, the darkness seems to 
be impenetrable. Not only the fires and incense on 
pagan altars, but the family and social life, reflect the 
hearts and homes of the people. The historian asserts 
that in Rome marriage was considered inexpedient 
unless large dowries were brought to the husband. 
Courtesans usurped the privilege of wives with un- 
blushing effrontery. Women were married to be 
divorced, and were divorced to be married again. 
Noble Roman matrons counted the years, not by the 
consuls, but by their discarded or discarding husbands. 

A large part of the population belonged to the 
slave class Gibbon estimates the number of slaves at 
sixty millions — one-half of the whole population. One 
hundred thousand captives taken in the Jewish war 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 313 

were sold as slaves, and sold as cheap as horses. For 
the slightest offense they were tortured, fed to the 
fish, crucified, or eaten by wild beasts in the arena. 
Attica was no better than Rome. In a population of 
550,000 she had 400,000 slaves. Yet in the midst of 
this appalling suffering the people lived in luxury. 
The palace of Nero glittered with gold and jewels. 
Perfumes and flowers were showered from ivory 
ceilings. The halls of the emperor were hung with 
cloth of gold enriched with jewels. Beds of silver 
and tables of gold were his. They were a pleasure- 
loving people. Augustus let loose six hundred lions in 
the arena in one day, and delighted the people with 
420 panthers. In a document annexed to his will he 
mentions the fact that he had exhibited eight thousand 
gladiators and 3,510 beasts. At the games of Trajan 
eleven thousand animals and ten thousand men fought 
with each other for the pleasure of the populace. 
Probus reserved six hundred gladiators for one of his 
festivals. On another occasion he slaughtered two 
hundred lions, twenty leopards and three hundred 
bears. 

Liberty found but little footing in this country. It 
was treason to find fault with any public act. No 
liberty of speech even in the Roman Senate. His- 
torians draw dark and awful pictures of this mighty 
empire. Greece and Rome had shrines for numberless 
deities; forty theaters for amusements. Thousands of 
perfume stores, but no shrines for brotherly love nor 
almshouses for the poor. 

When, a few years later, we look at Great Britain, 
the picture is none the less appalling. Macaulay tes- 
(ii) 



314 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

tifies : "Her inhabitants, when first they became known 
to the Tyrian mariners, were little superior to the 
natives of the Sandwich Islands." Greene, in his 
"History of the English People," declares : "Famine 
drove men to bend their heads in these evil days for 
meat. The debtor, unable to discharge his debt, flung 
on the ground his freeman's sword and spear, took 
up the laborer's mattock, and placed his head as a 
slave within his master's hands." The common god 
of these English people was Woden, the war god. Our 
names for the days of the week tell the story of our 
heathen origin, when our fathers sacrificed human 
beings in wicker-work of wire. 

Coming to conditions in the more modern world, 
the cloud is none the less dark. Hawaii was first 
visited by the white man in 1549. It was explored by 
Captain Cook in 1778, who lost his life there in 1779. 
This tragic story, for seven years, prevented vessels 
from reaching this island. Idolatry was here of the 
lowest order. Human sacrifices were customary, es- 
pecially in the case of the sickness of a monarch. In 
forty years her population fell from 400,000 to 150,000. 
The people shaved their heads, burned themselves, 
knocked out their front teeth, and both sexes, young 
and old, gave free rein to their bad passions, in rob- 
bery, lust and murder. As late as 1841 their own king 
said of them: "The lines of distinction between right 
and wrong seem well-nigh obliterated." The- rights 
of others were not respected. The blind, the aged, 
the maimed, were abused ; and the chiefs ground the 
poor in the dust. Gambling, drinking and debauchery 
dominated the rulers and leaders. A law was made 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 315 

that sanctioned wholesale rum-drinking, dancing, 
stealing, adultery, and night carousing, consuming 
whole nights in the most shameful debauchery, turning 
whole villages into brothels. 

The Fiji Islands were no better. In 1838, when 
John Hunt went there, two-thirds of all the children 
born were killed at birth. Cannibalism was not only 
a custom, but a religious rite. Their chiefs boasted 
of the number of bodies they had eaten. Such is a 
brief survey of the condition of the world-lump be- 
fore the leaven of the gospel was placed in it to 
perform its wonder-working powers. 

III. The Leaven. — What has been the leaven that 
has so wondrously changed these lumps? It has not 
been evolution, either theistic or materialistic. There 
has been no improvement, either in the individual or 
society, until a new principle has been injected. Such 
are the facts of history. Such is the conclusion of 
science. The meal is powerless of itself to work this 
change.- China is hoary with age. Many millenniums 
have not wrought a moral miracle among these teem- 
ing millions without the leavening power of the gospel 
of the kingdom. Says J. T. Gracey: "When Moses 
led the Israelites through the wilderness, Chinese laws 
and literature and Chinese religious knowledge ex- 
celled that of Egypt. A hundred years before the 
north wind rippled over the harp of David, Wung 
Wang, an emperor of China, composed classics which' 
are committed to memory at this day by every ad- 
vanced scholar of the empire. A thousand years ago 
the forefathers of the present Chinese sold silks to 
the Romans, and dressed in these fabrics when the 



316 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

inhabitants of the British Isles wore coats of paint 
and fished in willow canoes. Her great wall was built 
220 years before Christ was born in Bethlehem, and 
contains material enough to build a wall five or six 
feet high around the globe." If evolution ever had 
a chance to reform a people, surely it has had full 
swing in this mighty empire. In all these lands it 
has been the leaven of love as taught by the Christ 
that has charmed and changed their people. It was 
love's sweet story that made of the narrow-minded 
and bigoted Jew a brother to the despised Gentile, and 
broke down the middle wall of partition between them. 
It was love that changed Paul, the Jewish zealot, into 
an evangelist to the whole wide world. It changed 
the family life of Rome, destroyed slavery, lessened 
luxury, and put in its place service and self-sacrifice ; 
gave liberty to the oppressed, circled the Roman Em- 
pire with charity, entered the home of the emperor, and 
conquered the empire. The "Angle" slaves in the 
market-place of the Eternal City touched the heart of 
Augustine, and with forty monks he went to the 
"Angle Land," converted the king, and rescued the 
island from paganism, and the power of the gospel 
story has made it one of the mightiest empires of earth. 
The missionaries of the cross of Christ have gone into 
the islands of the seas with this story of the kingdom, 
and Hawaii becomes a part of the greatest republic 
in the world, and to-day we are proud that our flag 
can fly in honor over that island in the peaceful Pacific. 
This germ is being planted in every land and clime, 
and through all these years it has lost none of its 
power to leaven the lump. Though much has been 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 317 

done, yet much remains to be completed. The present 
lump numbers 1,200,000,000 of non-Christians. An 
army of more than twenty thousand men and women 
are in their midst, preaching the things concerning 
the kingdom. But how small this army in comparison 
with the forces they are compelled to face. The same 
ratio to population would give two ministers to Edin- 
burgh and twenty-seven to London. True, the church 
is spending twenty-five million dollars a year, yet what 
is this among so many? — two cents per capita for the 
conversion of the world, the leavening of this mighty 
lump ! We have been moving so slow that God has 
seemingly grown impatient at our tardy efforts, and 
is sending them to us by the millions that we may in 
Christian lands teach them these great truths, and 
send them back among their own peoples to carry the 
torch of life and liberty to the ends of the whole earth. 




L. C. Howe. 



318 



L. C. HOWE. 

L. C. Howe, son of Robert and Xannie Howe, was 
born of pioneer stock in Kentucky, Nov. 15, 1866.. He 
attended the public schools of his time, and received 
other preparatory work at a private school taught by 
Dr. James Kendrick at Flemingsburg, Ky. He at- 
tended the Bible School at Lexington. He has held 
splendid charges in Kansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
Indiana. His longest pastorate was at Elwood, Ind. 
Here he erected a new house of worship. He was 
more than six years at Newcastle, Ind. His work 
has been very successful. He has led seven young 
men to enter the ministry, has conducted nearly two 
thousand funerals, and officiated at that many wed- 
dings. He is often sought for special addresses, and 
is a live factor in the community where he resides. He 
has done quite a little evangelistic work. In one meet- 
ing there were 217 additions. He is at present with 
the church at Noblesville, Ind. Here he is doing a 
splendid work. He is a real gospel preacher. 



319 



SERMON XXL 

SOME GREAT "HOODS" JESUS TAUGHT A 
WOMAN. 

L. C. Howe. 

Text. — John 4:9, 10: "The Samaritan woman therefore 
saith unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink 
of me, who am a Samaritan woman? (For Jews have no 
dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said unto 
her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith 
to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldest have asked of him, 
and he would have given thee living water." 

The scene that this text forcibly recalls is replete 
with spiritual truth and moral significance. Jesus 
taught many of the basic principles of his kingdom 
and the varied truth of his gospel in wonderful con- 
versations. Being wearied with his journey, he came 
one day at noon to Jacob's well, and asked the simple 
favor, a drink of water, from a woman of Samaria. 
She was deeply impressed with the age-long prejudices 
and bias of her people against the Jews, and readily 
replied from a spirit of hate : "How is it that thou, 
being a Jew, askest drink of me who am a woman 
of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the 
Samaritans." Christ took no time to parley with her 
malice ; he drove some great and enduring truth 
straight to her conscience. He was the divine Teacher 
who had come from God, so he must "be about his 

Father's business" and fulfill his mission of salvation. 

321 



* 



322 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

This marvelous conversation was greater in some 
respects than the one held with the lawyer, on which 
the parable of the good Samaritan is based, or the 
one held with Nicodemus, with its great message of 
"Regeneration." It is an eternal story of redeeming 
love, manifesting the grace, tact and power of our 
divine Lord. Some great lessons are involved in its 
unfolding. Some practical "hoods' in its gospel of 
salvation. As we proceed to study this unique narra- 
tive, we will find the following paramount and dom- 
inant : 

i. The Fatherhood of God. Jesus came to an age 
that had no well-defined faith in the true "Fatherhood 
of God." The Jew had been so closely shepherded 
by Jehovah, in such covenant relationship with him, 
the recipient of his prophecies and promises, the 
destined race through whom should come redeeming 
blood; he had been so long to them the "God of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," the Dispenser of infinite 
bounties, the worker of mighty miracles, that the Jew 
laid a selfish and exclusive claim to the providential 
Fatherhood of God. They regarded others as base 
Gentiles, and unfit for the kingdom of God unless 
they came to the Father through them. They had 
much historic reason, from the experiences of the 
past, to assume this attitude. The Samaritans had been 
alienated from them because of mongrel blood, and 
failure of the pure-blooded Jews to recognize their 
help in the rebuilding of the sacred temple. This 
racial Samaritan mixture had, in the eyes of the 
devout Jews, debarred them from the privileges and 
blessings of a common and divine Fatherhood. It 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 323 

has been a difficult lesson for the races of the earth 
to learn the mutual prayer of Jesus — "Our Father" — 
and the great truth taught by Paul on Mars Hill that 
God "hath made of one blood all nations of men to 
dwell upon the face of the earth . . . ; that they 
should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after 
him, and find him, though he be not far from every 
one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have 
our being; as certain of your own poets have said, 
For we are also his offspring" (Acts 17:26-28). 
Peter, the Jewish fisherman, the "apostle of the cir- 
cumcision," was taught by miraculous revelation on 
the housetop "that God was no respecter of persons, 
but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh 
righteousness, is accepted with him" (Acts 10:34, 
35). This was the glory vision of John on Patmos, that 
all nations in that great saved multitude had found 
the redemptive love of a common Father through 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Whosoever will, 
may come" unto this loving Father, through confes- 
sion of faith in Jesus Christ, and obedience to his 
divine gospel. The Samaritan woman had no such a 
glorious vision of a saving Fatherhood, and the 
bigoted Jew was in the same plight. If this woman 
had known the true "gift of God," and the unselfish 
love of his Fatherhood, she would not have let racial 
hatred, religious bias and ancestral malice withhold 
the refreshing "cup of cold water" in His name. Her 
conception of God was bounded by the lines of her 
selfish antipathy of the Jews. The Jew has slan- 
dered others by calling -them Gentiles, the Greeks by 
calling them barbarians, the Romans by calling them 



324 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

alien plebeians; the Chinese call us "foreign devils," 
and so race hatred has continued in spite of a loving 
Fatherhood-. "The Jews have no dealings with the 
Samaritans" has been perpetuated too long; it has 
engendered false notions of God's fatherhood. Paul 
assails idolatrous and false conceptions of God in 
that wonderful passage of Scripture in Ephesians : 
"One God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
through all, and in you air (Eph. 4:6). Closely 
associated with the triumphant truth of the "father- 
hood of God" is its most vital corollary: 

2. "The Brotherhood of Man." Our Saviour rose 
above the narrowness of his Jewish blood, and vin- 
dicated the universal "brotherhood of man" by pro- 
claiming, as the "Son of man," that he was the real 
"Elder Brother" of all mankind. D. R. Lucas, of 
sainted memory, used to emphasize with great force 
and clearness the "brotherhood of man." On one 
occasion he attended a banquet given in Des Moines, 
and at the table where he sat were four or five 
nationalities. He was asked to "express thanks." He 
simply said: "O Lord, we thank thee for thy great 
fatherhood and for our precious brotherhood in Jesus 
Christ. Amen." Christianity knows no color line, 
race line, nor separating sea line in the world-embrac- 
ing conquest of love and service. We should all be 
one through faith in Jesus Christ. That faith is strong 
enough to break down all barriers, to unite all races, 
to adjust all differences, to forgive all offenses, to 
ameliorate all wars, and to usher in the final reign of 
peace and conquering "brotherhood." Prejudice is 
the awful nightmare of the centuries, the heinous 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 325 

spirit that made discord between the "Jew and Samar- 
itan," dyed the world with blood, separated peoples, 
broke up homes, split churches, divided states, and 
made "Ishmaelites" out of countless millions. The 
"Prince of peace" came as our friend and brother to 
reveal a better way through the unselfish service of 
his loving gospel. The story of the "good Samari- 
tan," to whose despised race this sinful woman be- 
longed, is an enduring life parable of brotherliness. 
When Christ sought to impress and save this woman 
from herself, he would fully reveal the "great gift" 
of God with all its implied love, service, and victory 
over the selfish attitude of soul. It was a gracious 
revelation that we should love and not hate our fel- 
low-men. Love conquers all things. The growth of 
humanity is the evidence of a better civilization, but 
the development of Christian "brotherhood" is the 
reign of truth and glory, the golden era when the 
"kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom 
of the Christ." The woman at the historic well re- 
ceived a far-reaching lesson, that God was not merely 
a Father to her people, nor only a providential parent 
to the Jew, but that all men had the brotherly right 
to the "gift of God" through saving faith revealed by 
his Son. The water in the famous well suggested to 
the great Teacher the third great "hood" of this 
eternal narrative ; namely, 

3. Thirsthood of soul. In the greatest of all ser- 
mons, our Master had said, as a fundamental truth 
of his kingdom, that "blessed are they who do hunger 
and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be 
filled." He had proclaimed with authoritative truth 



326 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

that he was the "water of life." The famishing soul 
needs the refreshing Christ. If this poor woman had 
only known her real soul-thirst, she would have asked 
of Jesus, and he would have given her "living water," 
that it might become in her heart a "well of living 
water springing up into everlasting life." No creed 
is the water of life to a perishing world; no human- 
devised church council has opened up a perennial 
fountain of salvation; no man-made articles of faith 
are sufficient to satisfy the thirst of our souls for the 
Infinite. Christ alone is the unfailing "well spring- 
ing up into life eternal." Let us, with the disciples 
on the holy mount, "look up and see no man save 
Jesus only." The unchanging Christ, "the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and for ever," can always satisfy the 
thirsty soul. How much Ave miss the divine satisfac- 
tion when we seek to quench our soul-thirst in the 
stagnant pools of human dogma, the deceptive springs 
of narrow creeds, the putrid waters of decadent 
faiths. Give us the fountain of life in Christ Jesus, 
for that has a freshness and power that no time can 
stale. Many years ago, on the prairies of the West, 
the writer saw a squad of men drilling a well. They 
went far down into the deep caverns of the earth. He 
asked the superintendent of the drilling why they 
went so deep. He replied, "We want a never-failing 
flow of water, below the alkali deposits or mineral 
pollutions ; we want the best water we can find." So 
let us drill in our faith far below the surface of self- 
ishness, hate and pride, until the very deeps of our 
better life are opened up in Christ, the never-failing 
fountain. 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 327 

"Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow, 
But he who would search for pearls must dive below." 

This domestic-troubled woman had met the foun- 
tain of redemption. This "water of life" could satisfy 
her sin-stricken condition. Jesus read her wayward 
life, and probed the conscience of her marriage in- 
fidelity. He was her panacea in a time of trouble, an 
oasis in her desert of sin, a safe refuge from the 
social stigma of disgrace, a Messiah of salvation to 
her hope of redemption, the loving secret-teller of her 
wasted life, the true revealer of a better worship, and 
the message-giver of her missionary service and 
triumphant joy. Is Jesus our cleansing and saving 
fountain ? "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. Let 
him who is athirst, come." This freely flowing water 
of life is for all who will come in faith and partake 
of its sin-releasing and life-giving power. The wo- 
man's hatred began to subside, and she deemed Jesus 
a prophet; the problem of worship pulled on her 
heart-strings, and it has been the mooted question for 
untold centuries. This led the Christ to enlighten her 
on the next great ethical proposition involved in the 
conversation ; viz. : 

4. The "Spirithood" of worship. This creed- 
bound woman of the Samaritan faith localized the 
worship of God with the top of Alt. Gerizim, and im- 
puted to Jesus as saying "that in Jerusalem is the 
place where men ought to worship." How ready was 
the perfect Teacher to lead her into the way of spirit- 
uality and the truth. He replied: "Woman, believe 
me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this 
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 



328 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

. . . But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true 
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him." 
Then he proceeds to lay down the final and absolute 
law for the "spirithood of worship." God is a Spirit, 
and they who worship him must worship him "in 
spirit and in truth." The woman wanted to worship 
exactly as her ancestors had done. How often has 
this spirit fettered the progress of the truth, sup- 
pressed the gospel simplicity of faith, kept the Bible 
chained in darkness, bound the minds of men in credal 
bigotry, and hindered the restoration of pure Chris- 
tianity ! The age-long duel between truth and false- 
hood has had this obstinate spirit for a bloody back- 
ground. Jesus found it dominant with hypocrites, 
chief priests and Pharisees. Religion was objective, 
worship was external ; within "was full of extortion 
and excess." Formalism and legalism had crucified 
the truth and spirituality. "They paid tithe of mint, 
anise and cummin, and left undone the weightier 
matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith." Paul 
said: "The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life." Jesus 
never gave a more vital definition of his truth than 
when he said : "My words are spirit and they are life." 
This woman at the well was indeed a "whited sepul- 
chre," whose heart was full of "dead men's bones." 
She had been led in worship by "the blind leaders of 
the blind." Her soul had fallen in the deep old ditch 
of formal worship and dogmatic corruption. It was 
surely providential that Jesus met her in the dire con- 
dition of her social sin and religious bias. She re- 
ceives a new and living definition of God. He is made 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 329 

known to her, not as a mere principle, law or force, 
as some modern erroneous cults teach, but the perfect 
embodiment of all these in a divine Spirit. Pantheistic 
notions of God, pagan and philosophic theories of 
him, must fall before the revelation Jesus gave the 
woman as the perfect and final basis of all spiritual 
worship. Shrines, altars, temples, churches, beads and 
images are not to receive worship. Remember also 
the words of the Lord Jesus : "In vain do they wor- 
ship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of 
men." 

Let worship represent the heart 
That loves the Lord indeed. 

The spirit can not know the truth, 
If bound to place or creed. 

The next important lesson this heart-stirred wo- 
man was to learn is the greatest that was ever revealed 
to the sons of men : 

5. The Christhood of Jesus. She recognized his 
teaching as the burning words of a prophet, but she- 
fell back upon the reliance that her long-expected 
Messiah was coming, who would be adequate to tell 
her all things. This was the providential moment for 
which Jesus waited; it was a high tide of interest; the 
eternal clock of destiny was striking the hour. He 
spoke the hopeful word for which the ages had 
longed ; "I that speak unto thee am he." Concerning 
this revelation, Isaac Errett well says : "How this 
contrasts with the curious utterances to Nicodemus ! 
Only by implication is Nicodemus allowed to think 
that Jesus is the Messiah. To none of the great in Jeru- 
salem, nor even to the peasantry of Judea, has there 



330 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

been such a revelation of the Messiahship of Jesus 
as is made to this peasant woman of Samaria." He 
also further says : "The haughty, timorous Pharisee, 
though clothed with rabbinical dignity and authority, 
is yet far from the kingdom of God; while this ob- 
scure peasant woman of Samaria, because she is 
honest-hearted, truth-loving and penitent, enters in." 
What a glorious and glad noontime in her checkered 
history, when she is privileged to stand convicted in 
the matchless presence of him who was long heralded 
as "Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Prince of Peace, 
the everlasting Father"! In the "fulness of time" she 
had at last met him "who was born of a woman, born 
under the law," to be a propitiation for her sins, and 
also for the whole world. She could now sing the 
song of salvation with the poet: 

"Thirsting sons by Jacob's well, 
Hear the joyful news we tell: 
He who weary waited there, 
Scorched beneath the noontide glare, 
Offers you the 'Gift of God,' 
On the nations shed abroad ; 
Living waters springing up. 
Like a well of joy and hope." 

What a marvelous truth she learned — that "Imman- 
uel" had come! The perfect Teacher of Plato and 
Socrates had come at last. The "morning star" had 
arisen on the cruel world's dark night of despair, 
doubt and death. The "Rock of Ages" had now 
lifted itself out of the "dead sea of humanity." The 
"Bread and Water of Life" was now here for famish- 
ino- millions. She, found Him of whom the prophets 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 331 

had told — "the eternal purpose of God in the ages." 
He was now her "Balm of Gilead" and the "power 
of a resurrection" in a new life. Is the atoning Christ 
all this to us in temptation and toil, trial and tribula- 
tion, disease and death? It is only through faith in 
him that we live the saved life ; it is only by giving 
up sin for him that we are forgiven ; it is only by 
obedience to his commands that we have the promise 
of his blessed Spirit, and it is only as "Christ liveth 
in us" that we are redeemed. The "Christhood of 
Jesus" is the superlative truth in the salvation of the 
world and in the eternal kingdom of God. The im- 
pressive sequel to the beautiful story is the crowning 
"hood" oi all: 

6. Womanhood redeemed. The gracious Teacher 
had broken up the closed and sinful heart of the 
Samaritan woman. The disciples returned and mar- 
veled that he conversed with this woman, but did not 
dare to ask the reason why. It was enough for them 
to know that his name was called "Jesus ;" because 
he came to save the people from their sins, his un- 
selfish mission was "to seek and save the lost." The 
"joyhood" of message-bearing took complete posses- 
sion of the woman's soul. How plainly and impres- 
sively does the sacred record set this forth : "The 
woman then left the water-pot, and went her way into 
the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man who 
told me all the things that ever I did : is not this the 
Christ?" Our blessed Saviour never overlooked the 
individual, no matter how sinful. Out of a woman he 
had "cast seven demons ;" to another, whose life was 
scarlet in sin, he had said: "Neither do I condemn 



332 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

thee ; go, and sin no more." Robert Moffett, of 
blessed memory, said very appropriately : "Jesus did 
not allow the character of this woman to interfere 
with his mission. Jesus might have said : 'I can do 
little in this town, beginning with such a one. If I 
can get some of the better classes, some of the elite, 
the lawyers and doctors and rich merchants, to join 
with me, I may hope to accomplish something; but 
what can I hope from such a beginning as this' ?" 
How we try to steady God's ark in this way — just as 
if Jesus had not come to save all sinners. He came 
to "save unto the uttermost" all who would believe 
on him. Redeemed womanhood was the glorious out- 
come he saw. He knew a soul saved from sin for 
service was the paramount glory of his kingdom. The 
woman testified to the Sycharites. and her neighbors, 
no doubt to her illicit lovers, of the Christ, who was 
the promised "Deliverer" from all sin. This woman 
left in radiant joy and triumphant haste to tell others 
the glad tidings of Him who is the only "way, truth 
and life." Jesus has crowned woman with the full 
measure of her rights, responsibilities and rewards. 
He has rescued her from the cruel bondage of age- 
long tyranny, called her in sympathetic love from the 
social misery of pagan darkness, redeemed and 
crowne'd her with glory and honor in the service of 
love. She has at all times willingly suffered for her 
glorified and risen Lord. Man has suffered no perse- 
cution or martyrdom that she has not victoriously 
shared. There is no grander page in the history of 
human redemption than the record of what redeemed 
"womanhood" has wrought for the "kingdom of 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 333 

Christ." Mary, Dorcas, Lois and Eunice are listed 
among the immortals. One Frances Willard is enough 
to really exalt and glorify our civilization. History 
is full of the names of heroic women who have con- 
quered — a glorious immortality. In the long, blood- 
washed line that reaches back to Calvary is the wit- 
nessing life, the joyful missionary, the bringer of 
good tidings, the unknown woman of Samaria. Jesus 
spoke peace to this woman's heart, for he was the 
"Prince of peace." After the struggles of sin, after 
the discords of earth, after the war of the battlefield, 
after the feud of Samaritan and Jew, after the clash 
of creed and dogma, after death and darkness, may 
all who love the Lord and await his glorious appear- 
ing get a seraphic vision of his eternal peace. 




Harley Jackson, 



334 



HARLEY JACKSON. 

Harley Jackson was born in Greene County, Ind., 
Sept. 9, 1874; was reared on a farm, educated in the 
common and high schools of that county, and was 
set apart to the ministry by his home church, "Old 
Bethel," in Greene County, in 1894. 

Held a pastorate in Greene and Lawrence Coun- 
ties until 1900, when he moved to Irvington and took 
a special course in Butler College. He was ordained 
at Irvington, 1902, by Dean Jabez Hall, Dr. A. R. 
Benton and E. W. Thornton. 

In 1903 he accepted the pastorate of the Central 
Christian Church of Seymour, Ind., which pastorate 
he held until 1909. 

He is now serving his third year as minister of the 
Central Christian Church of Columbus, Ind. 



335 



SERMON XXII. 

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE. 
Harley Jackson. 

Text. — i Tim. 4:8: "Godliness is profitable unto all 
things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that 
which is to come." 

"Resolved to live with all my might while I do live." — 
Jonathan Edwards. 

"Jest do your best, an' praise er blame, 
That f oilers, that counts jest the same. 
I've allers noticed great success 
Is mixed with troubles, more or less, 
An' it's the man who does his best 
That gets more kicks than all the rest." 

To get the most out of life here and hereafter, 
one must equip himself with the forces which God 
has put within his reach. 

There are forces external and internal, and, in 
order to get the most out of life, we must be able to 
meet these face to face and use them for ourselves 
and others. 

I want to mention four external influences which 
shape and mold the life and character of every one 
of us. Day by day, as we push on toward the higher 
things, these forces, though silent as the law of 
gravity, are having their influence upon us. 

The first I want to mention is work. There is a 

great unwritten law of life that the path to manhood 

337 



338 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

is the path of toil. Culture of every kind is always 
the outcome of effort, never of ease. 

The unused muscles decay, eyes that are kept in 
perpetual darkness in time lose their power to see. 
The sentence pronounced on the first human pair, "In 
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,'' has more 
of reward in it than penalty. If the first draught of 
the cup was bitter, there was honey at the bottom. 

On physical grounds, the value of labor is uni- 
versally admitted. The gospel of health which is being 
so loudly proclaimed to-day is to all intents and pur- 
poses the gospel of exercise. To do something is the 
exhortation of all medical men ; if you have nothing 
to do, invent something. Dig in the garden, wash 
dishes, scrub, go for a long walk in the country — even 
though you hate these things, do them for your own 
sake. 

Idleness has been the curse of every generation ; 
it is the curse of thousands of young men to-day, 
who are drifting into the mire of moral corruption 
just because they have nothing to do. Their business 
is to kill time; they have no other. The gospel of 
work was never more needed than to-day. Great 
races do not spring out of luxury and idleness. The 
scented groves of indolence are fatal to the develop- 
ment of the noblest manhood. Do something. 

The second one is books. The books we read and 
have in our home are helping to shape and mold the 
character of our boys and girls. Of all companions, 
books are the most delightful. They talk to you just 
when you want to be talked to, and at no other time. 
They never bore you with their chatter when you are 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 339 

anxious to be quiet ; never force their vews upon you 
when you are not in the humor to listen ; never air 
their fads in your hearing when you want to meditate 
on your own. 

No other friends are so obliging or accommo- 
dating. You may neglect them for months, and they 
do not resent it. You may disagree with them, and 
they talk to you just as placidly as before. You may 
shut them up without a moment's warning, and they 
never get angry. They are always ready to be taken 
on a long journey and equally ready to stay at home. 
They accommodate themselves to your mood in the 
most extraordinary manner, but are always most re- 
vealing, most communicative, when you are most 
sympathetic. In these days, books are not a luxury, 
they being a necessity. We have a feeling that we 
could not live without them, that to be shut out from 
their companionship would be a burden too intolerable 
to be borne. There is no hunger so painful as brain- 
hunger ; no loneliness so utter and depressing as to 
be shut up in a room without books. 

That books act and react upon the character is 
now universally admitted. Perhaps there is no other 
influence so potest, so pervasive, so subtle, so abiding. 
We read a book in childhood, and an impression is 
made that remains with us to the last day of our life. 
We can not escape it. 

To fall in love with a good book is one of the 
greatest events that can befall us. It is to have a 
new influence pouring itself into our life, a new 
teacher to inspire and refine us, a new friend to be by 
our side always, who, when life grows narrow and 



340 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

weary, will take us into a broader, calmer, higher 
world. 

Except a living man, there is nothing more won- 
derful than a book. A message to us from the dead, 
from human souls whom we never saw, who lived, 
perhaps, thousands of miles away, and yet those little 
sheets of paper speak to us, amuse or comfort us, and 
open their hearts to us as brothers. 

"I love my books! they are companions dear; 
Sterling in worth, in friendship most sincere; 
Here talk I with the wise in ages gone, 
And with the nobly gifted in our own." 

" The third influence with which we come in contact 
is the selection of friends and companions. It is a 
very dangerous, yet important, one. A man is not only 
known by the company he keeps, but he is to a large 
extent molded by its influence. Character takes color 
from its surroundings. We absorb the elements in 
which we move, and weave them into the fiber and 
texture of our moral and spiritual life. We grow 
like the people with whom we have most to do. "He 
who lives among wolves will learn to bark," says a 
Spanish proverb. 

It is possible sometimes to tell the districts from 
which people come. It is not simply that "their speech 
betrayeth them ;" the distinguishing characteristic lies 
deeper. Their secret is divulged by manner, by de- 
portment, by the moral quality of their conversation, 
by a certain untranslatable tone and color of thought 
and speech. 

In the time of Christ, the saying had grown almost 
into a proverb, "Can any good thing come out of 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 341 

Nazareth?" It was not a mere accident of speech, 
or the blundering untruth of some prejudiced Phar- 
isee; it was a saying that had its origin in certain 
generally recognized facts. Nazareth was a noto- 
riously evil place ; so evil, in fact, that its moral 
atmosphere appeared to affect all its inhabitants to a 
greater or less degree. There was a general assump- 
tion in the surrounding districts that it was impossible 
for any individual to breathe the moral atmosphere 
of Nazareth for thirty years and come out of it a 
good man. The assumption in the main was based on 
sound philosophic principles. We do as other people 
do, not by accident, but by design ; and we are very 
much pained and disappointed sometimes if we find 
ourselves unable to copy the example of our neighbors. 

Our ever-shifting world of fashion is built upon 
this peculiarity. However much we may applaud 
originality, we strongly object to singularity. We 
copy the manners, the style, the tone of the set in 
which we move. To run in the teeth of the prevailing 
fashion requires an amount of courage that very few 
people can command. The man who dares to be 
singular is generally regarded as a faddist or a crank, 
who adopts this method of earning a little cheap noto- 
riety. 

Last, but not least, I want to mention religion. 
Matthew Arnold has defined religion as ''morality 
touched by emotion." Christ defined it as "love" — 
an emotion that takes the morality for granted, and 
embraces within itself all the law and the prophets. 
In this sense, therefore, the crown and glory of man- 
hood is religion. There may be fullness of learning; 



342 THE INDIANA PULPIT 

there may be perfection of grace and beauty; there 
may be brilliancy of intellect, maturity of judgment, 
charm of eloquence, and even correctness of conduct ; 
but if religion is lacking, the passion of love that lifts 
duty into delight and makes service a joy, will never 
be able to accomplish its purpose. The ship. is still 
without its rudder, the building without its top stone. 

Religion is like sunshine. It is not only a beau- 
tiful thing in itself, but it brings out the beauty that 
is in every other thing. It is the great revealer as 
well as the great life-giver. 

If a man be educated, religion makes him more 
useful. If he possess great riches, religion shows him 
how to spend it. If he is great socially, religion will 
make him still greater. 

In commerce, politics, art, literature, religion is the 
very breath of life, or, if I may be allowed to change 
the figure, it is the salt that saves from corruption. 
What Solomon said of "wisdom" is true of "religion." 

"For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise 
of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. 

"She is more precious than rubies ; and all things thou 
canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 

"Length of days is in her right hand ; and in her left hand 
riches and honor. 

"Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are 
peace." 

Next, we will notice some of the internal forces 
that have to do with our expression to the world, by 
which the world places its estimate upon us. 

The first I mention is truthfulness. By all means 
tell the truth. It matters not when or where. You 



THE INDIANA PULPIT 345 

will never have to go back and think up another story 
to straighten out the one you first told, and you will 
always feel good. He or she who makes a habit of 
lying is not getting much out of life if they have any 
conscience, and, to be sure, every one of us has. 

The second is punctuality. Be there when you 
promise. Don't fail. There is more time lost in this 
country sitting around waiting for the other fellow 
than there is in doing the business after he comes. 
Be prompt. Nothing counts for so much as punc- 
tuality. "Better be early and stand and wait, than a 
minute behind the time." 

The last one I wish to mention is courtesy. It is 
the cheapest, yet one of the most valuable assets. To 
be polite attracts the attention of the people more than 
anything I know, and 'it is due from one to another 
that we be courteous. 

"I shall not pass this way again, 
But far beyond earth's where and when, 
May I look back along the road 
Where on both side "good seed I sowed. 

"I shall never pass this way again. 
May wisdom guide my tongue and pen, 
And love be mine that so I may 
Plant roses all along the way. 

"I shall not pass this way again. 
May I be courteous to men, 
Faithful to friends, true to God, 
A fragrance on the path I trod." 



OCT 14 1912 



. Siilili 

0022 015 876 7 



